Tony Blair's announcement from the British publics perspective. Communicate guys?

Here are some comments from a Brit Blog about Tony Blairs announcement to withdraw troops from Iraq. It is essential in any relationship to communicate everybody knows that but there is little communication between the peoples of our two nations. There should be more direct contact. American only hear what they are allowed to hear in the media and bad news or negative responses are curtailed. Family should always be able to ‘tell it how it is’ just like Simon in American Idol. Guys please make every effort to seek out a fuller method of communicating with the wider world and please resist the temptation to just shut out what might pain you to hear. My five children always heard it straight from me and I did not treat my three stepsons differently from my natural daughters. It took a while for them to appreciate that and I had to risk their disdain but I held up for honesty and it paid off. Tony Blair has to enter a ‘chicken coop’ to get just any advancement at all from the House of Commons and only the strong arguments prevail. The method of voting a Commander in Chief and then having to endure ‘whatever’ he insists and demands is scary by comparison. Tony Blair can be ousted by his peers with little effort and another leader of his party substituted in his place. That is more likely to bring about an attitude of modesty, which is not how I would describe my experience of American Leadership? Here are some British Posts that I hope you find interesting. There are 20 separate entries and some are in reply to other entries. They all cover the variety of opinions you might expect from the general public.

Just flicked on to Sky news and they are saying that the Blair is going to announce withdrawal of troops from Iraq. For real or PR crap? What happened to "it's more dangerous to pull them out now?" or is he more concerned with leaving on a good note?”

He could pull Anna Nicole Smith, alive and well, out of a top hat - its still too late for him to leave on a good note!”

The announcement should not come as a surprise. It was first mooted about 9 months ago. It has been on the plot for our lads to reduce their duties to garrison and training duties, for a couple of years now.”

I certainly hope it is true! I'm an American and very hopeful that the war will end soon. I am glad that your country has a chance to get out of this pit that Bush lied us into.”

Yes St. Jim - I agree that this announcement does seem to have come at a suspiciously convenient time for Bliar, as it does make him look better than he did last week........If all this had been agreed a while ago, why wasn't an official announcement made earlier?”

We can see with both Blair and Bush the sort of games politicians play with people's lives under the illusion of democracy - Bush, in particular, seems to do exactly what he wants.

I think Bush is a very dangerous man but there may be hope for Bliar - when he finally leaves politics!”

i will believe it when i see it, that tony blair tells so many lies”

Cut and run with the job half done? sure this isn't France we're talking about?”

hbk “I find it sickening that Blair is clearly putting his parties image before the leadership change ahead of the future wellbeing of the entire middle east.

Two weeks ago there would be NO timetable at all, words from his own mouth.

As soon as its revealed that David Cameron has a 15 point lead, "our brave boys" are coming home.

Well done Tony you spineless coward.”

Bloody hell - hbk! Hello old bean how are you? Any recipes you care to tempt us with! This forum is in much need of lasagne...”

hbk - at the battle of Bien Pen Phu in 1956 in the Vietnamese war of independence a French division was ordered to stay put even though it was about to be surrounded by thousands upon thousands of very well armed resistance fighters - they held out for weeks and fought to the last bullet. The general in charge blew himself up with his own grenade just before he was to be captured.

In 1916 at the battle of Verdun the French army lost thousands of men fighting off the Germans and 'won'. During the second world war Eisenhower said the French resistance was worth around 15 of his divisions.

Point being - your xenophobic remark about the French cutting and running is about as insightful as your belief that Britain is in Iraq for the “well being of the middle East” - a comment that gave everyone here such a laugh by the way - unintentionally but cruelly funny.

As for the troop withdrawal - well the war's been all over for some time as is has been, generally, for Blair. It's too little too late and too far away. All gone by 2008?! Bush'll be thinking about invading Russia through the remains of Iran by then. In his shattered imagination, that is.”

hbk- “My comment on the French was an attempt at sarcastic humor, I apologize if anybody is offended, though i would point out its far tamer than the constant Europe/Gypsy/Muslim/Polish stories that make it into this paper and quite frankly some of the threads on this board are borderline incitement, they need moderating.

But that’s by the way.

For the good of the Middle East? well of course that's why we're still there. What exactly do you think will happen if we all just packed up and went home today? not only would Iraq descend into possibly the bloodiest war seen in many a decade, but the entire region would as thousands of insurgents from Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria and every other nation poured over Iraq's borders to fight a proxy war over the countries oil and against their rival Islamic branches, backed by their respective governments and Al Qaeda.

Right now the Coalition troops in Iraq are the only thing stopping the entire region descending into carnage on a scale 20 times what we're seeing right now. YES its bad, YES our people are dying, but it can get a whole lot worse.

These are the times a TRUE leader needs his nerve, needs to make the tough choices and by going back on his word not to issue a deadline, Tony Blair has failed to do that. Its a cowardly decision.

There's a worrying isolationist view at the moment. Middle England seems perfectly happy for Iraqis to slaughter each other so long as it doesn't interfere with their cosy lives.

The Worlds bigger than Big Brother, Britney's hairdo and what happened in Eastenders last night.”

This is of course a typical BLAIR action - i.e. looking for publicity, support and admiration etc.

Whatever one feels about the war in Iraq it was done in support of the US - so why should we withdraw and leave them to it?

aren't we supposed to be their allies?

aren't we responsible (in part) for the problems there?

The sad fact is that our involvement in Iraq was really a Blair attempt to get the type of admiration historical remembrance etc. that Churchill got in the 2nd world war and Thatcher got when we had to defend the Falkland islands.

He failed to get the admiration he was (is) dying, yearning for - so obviously he now knows that the majority of the population are against the war so his final attempt to get admiration and be remembered as a good / successful PM is to withdraw our troops.

Like most of his policies, ideas and activities egotistical, self centered - UGH!!”

Blair's nonsense has left the Labour Party so wounded, that even an opportunist like David Cameron might get voted-in. Blair's ego was always the most important item on his own agenda.”

Is an election coming up?”

Is it really true? Is it? And if it is, I'm still cynical; I bet he'll say he's withdrawing them but they won't actually leave until 2012 or something.”

it wont happen !!

i can tell u now !”

bring our lads home I say let em get on with it themselves now”

If it happens it happens all well and good, but it wouldn't surprise me if he's bringing them home, just to freshen them up for "Iran" next!!!!!”

Don't even think about Iran, it'll just end in tears, bring them home, give them a decent salary, and decent accommodation, and only use them when this country is directly threatened....”

WHAT A NICE LITTLE ANNOUNCEMENT JUST WHEN THE NHS HAS ADVISED ITS GOT LESS THEN 4MONTHS MONEY LEFT, TRAFFIC CHARGING, RISE IN UNEMPLOYMENT, NHS STAFF HAVE NO FAITH IN THE GOVERNMENT AND INFLATION IS ON THE MOVE AGAIN”