What is it between Blair and Bush? They seem to share a symbiosis as natural as two plants which need the existence of the other to survive. I have heard people say that they are like lovers but in that situation the gender is wrong, they are both male! It must be down to the deal which the two conspirators struck when Blair visited Bush and they began rehearsals ready to raise the curtain on their latest " Oh what a lovely democratic war" production, Iraq War 2, Joan Littlewood must be turning in her grave. Things have gone from fantasy to reality and back to fantasy with the ease of shaking a child's kaleidoscope and the stupidity of two political clowns who create tears of despair as opposed to those of laughter. Bush, Blair and a host of advisors obviously got it wrong and finally no one can deny this fact. During the past few weeks there has been a redeeming development of the Bush/Blair all singing and dancing show in so far that the "Weapons of Mass Destruction" have finally been taken from the propaganda programme. From time to time, like a receding distant thunder, there are rumbling references to WMD, but like the thunder it is instantly gone before the public can pinpoint the source. Unfortunately, there is now a new problem which replaces the WMD dilemma. This comes in the form of some shocking photographs which have been published in both American and English newspapers, photographs which show the Iraqi prisoners being tortured. According to the Blair establishment the American ones are genuine but the English have been artificially created and are a hoax. Vive la difference!

The English regiment (presumably the officers) concerned have issued denials and backed the government's claim that they are not genuine and perhaps this could be the truth although these modern gentlemen don't seem to know what the ranks get up to. After WMD, the strange death of Doctor Kelly, the Hutton report, the inherent nature of the New Labour political machine, the lurking of Al Queda at every corner of the globe and the associated lies which have been told from the very beginning of the war, what can we believe? In the politics of Iraq "Truth is indeed stranger than fiction," a statement born out by the two protagonists! And in the Mirror dispute who can we believe, Blair or Piers Morgan who has now been taken out of the immediate equation because the owners decided to move and gave him the sack. Was this moral outrage or was it what is known as protecting ones investment ?

We are now in May 2004, one year on from the declaration of war . The world is writhing in no uncertain way and the immediate future looks bleak. For Mr Blair the word hubristic is insufficient to describe the cerebral arrogance of his political stance. The sign of great mediocrity is that once a GM has established himself (not necessarily as a genetic modification although it might well be) and decided that he is right on a course of action, he cannot change direction or view his perspective from a different angle or viewpoint. Mr Blair is a chameleon politician who alters colour according to the voting propensities of his audience. This works at home on the national front where he can get away with it but on the international stage the chameleon factor is dangerous. Quite simply Blair doesn't know what he is doing. Both Blair and Bush take top marks in mediocrity and their manifestation of this quality leaves the overall international and global view of politics in a very depressing state. If one were to write down the facts as they are with a literary style, today's political scenario would resemble the preface or chapter 1 of a cheap, third world war blockbuster. The Middle East cauldron is simmering with a dangerous possibility that it might just bubble over at any moment. If it doesn't, it won't be because Mr Blair and Mr Bush know what they are doing, because they don't. Theirs is an ignorance sourced from their lack of statesmanship, lack of real leadership and a belief in their own egotistical self assessment as men of destiny who are writing history with their words and actions. I wonder where Bush would be without the nepotism and fiscal background of oil? Where would Blair be without his academic achievement at Oxbridge, which like so many of his ilk, was obtained gratis? Wealth and academic achievement are not prerequisites for natural leadership which in the past would have emerged from the weeds of poverty, mediocrity and the underprivileged. Unfortunately, in today's environment, leadership is only allowed to be expressed if the aspiring applicants have the right qualifications, wealth and/or an academic degree, preferably a law degree. The consequence of this is that the emergence of great natural leadership as it used to, is very difficult if not almost impossible.

The appalling situation surrounding the "torture photographs" is horrendous and has developed into a virtual reality nightmare. Like seasoned actors the Blair camp is extemporising their lines from a discarded, lost script and are already beginning to be even more creative with the truth in their desperate need to realign New Labour ready for the immanent general election. Strangely enough, Bush is also realigning his policies in preparation for the 2004 Presidential election. He is determined to leave the governance of Iraq to the indigenous natives so that he can get on with winning the presidential race and secure his second term of office. Regardless of what the consequences might be, suddenly he wants America's political involvement to be in the background. The military will remain in situ to help the new government (like they have been helping so far) but they won't interfere with the new politics. Wearing their new emperor's clothes, the two leaders would have us believe that this is sublime altruism. Like an ever-increasing number of people I have my doubts. In my opinion the Blair camp's "piece de resistance" was a quote by "our woman in Baghdad " who was heard to quote on Radio 4 that " what the American and British soldiers were doing to the Iraqi prisoners was not as bad as what Saddam Hussein did to his own people!! " Such noble justification. Are we expected to give our soldiers brownie points for not being as nasty as the old pre war regime? Creative politics indeed!

Frankly, Blair should be running night school classes for amateur dramatic societies. Amateur dramatics imitate the real thing without having to be approved by the serious theatre-goers. Friends and relatives yes, but that provides no problem . Like the parents of children in the school production, their performance will always be seen as faultless. True Blairites believe in Blair but then so did those in Hitler's inner circle believe in their Fuehrer. Bush and Blair are beginning to discover the political judases in their midst and at both the House of Representatives at Washington and the Commons at Westminster, the Brutus knives are being drawn from their sheaves ready for the moment of opportunity.
Unfortunately, even if Blair and Bush were to leave the political arena of world politics, their mistakes will be inherited by their political heirs who will have to find their way out of the moral maze which their antecedent's stupidity has created. Nearly everyone believes that the war was wrong. Bush and Blair have taken us down a political cul de sac from which there is no return because the route back has been destroyed .To go forward from the end of this cul de sac we have to hack our way through the dead end and hope that it will lead to an acceptable exit and way forward.

The difference between serial killers and serial warmongers is at least you know what the killers are going to do. No one knows where the Bush/Blair fiasco will end but let us pray that something will happen that will prevent the enhancement of the instability of the middle East and ultimately the world. Mr Blair says that he is not a liability to New Labour. He might or might not be disillusioned with this opinion but it becomes progressively more obvious, that if Blair and Bush both stay in power they will represent a liability to the peace of the world, an opinion which countries and nations are beginning to understand in an ever increasing awareness and comprehension as the dangers of Bush/Blair's political arrogance and lack of wisdom manifests itself with ever increasing sharpness. Even as I write, I hear on the news that Bush has announced that once the Iraqis have officially taken over, they will move out of Iraq if that's what they want. Empty rhetoric? Perhaps, although their strong survival instinct might well take that direction. Of course Bush's political doppleganger, Tony Blair, will follow suit and it would be a temporary answer to both their prayers. Relative freedom from a nightmare and an open road towards their respective goals. Winning their next election, although somehow I doubt that they could really leave the oil to the Iraqis after all that effort, all that sweat, all that blood and death and all those silent passengers returning home on flights filled with so many young men in so many body bags.

Copyright Dorian van Braam May 2004