Straw's sacking insults Britain.... dismissed by the US President

[anakie]

WHEN British foreign secretary Jack Straw was replaced by Margaret Beckett in a cabinet reshuffle this year, it seemed almost inexplicable. Straw had been highly competent - experienced, serious, moderate and always well-briefed. Beckett is embarrassingly inexperienced.

I made inquiries in Washington and was told US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had taken exception to Straw's statement that it would be "nuts" to bomb Iran. The US, it was said, had put pressure on British Prime Minister Tony Blair to change his foreign secretary. Straw had been fired at the request of the Bush administration, particularly at the behest of the Pentagon.

.....

The alternative explanation was given more recently by Irwin Stelzer in The Spectator. He has remarkably good Washington contacts and is probably right. His account is that Straw was indeed dismissed because of US anxieties, but that Rice herself had become worried, on her visit to Blackburn, by Straw's dependence on Muslim votes. About 20 per cent of the voters in Blackburn are Islamic. Straw was dumped only four weeks after Rice's visit.

It may be that both explanations are correct. The first complaint may have been made by Rumsfeld because of Iran, and Rice may have withdrawn her support after seeing the Islamic pressures in Blackburn. At any rate, Stelzer's account confirms that Straw was fired because of US pressure.


http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20050494-2703,00.html


another damning inditement on the US (mis)administration's power over Blair as well as interference in another nations internal affairs.

peace

[maddezmom]

1. duplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2440418