Dog Bites Poodle? Will Tony Blair Become a Scapegoat for Bush and Rummy? (1)

With the White House now pursuing a strategy of admitting their WMD intelligence was wrong but trying to blame it all on their enemies at the CIA, Tony Blair and his supporters seem to think they have reason to believe that their partnership with Bush could become a one-way affair. It's too bad for Blair and his country that he didn't figure out much earlier that Bush and his unilateralists indeed have a special view of the US-British "special relationship."

Blair fears being hung out to dry by Bush over WMD Independent (UK) 02/01/04

Here's how the Independent describes Blair's current dilemma (my emphasis):

Having enlisted Britain's spies in making the case for war in the September 2002 dossier on Iraq's WMD, the Prime Minister is less able than Mr Bush to distance himself. The White House, unlike No 10, never staked its entire case for war on Iraq's alleged possession of WMD, and may seek to deflect blame on to the CIA and other intelligence agencies, including MI6 [the British intelligence agency].

The changing message from Washington comes as Downing Street advisers are still recovering from their astonishment at public reaction to last week's Hutton report into the suicide of the weapons expert David Kelly.

Instead of seeing the report as proof that Mr Blair believed in the existence of Iraq's illegal weaponry when the took the country to war, the public - according to early opinion polls - thinks that the BBC has been unfairly traduced for trying to uncover the truth behind the decision to go to war.

Welcome to the Bush-and-Rummy World Order, Tony. You wanted it, you got it. Bush's team is composed of people ruthless enough to reveal Valerie Plame (an expert on WMDs) as an undercover CIA agent to discredit critics of their use of intelligence, possibly exposing her contacts abroad to deadly retaliation and destroying her effectiveness in her previous role. Britain is just a vassal state to these people. And Tony's just some foreign socialist, no more than a useful idiot in the eyes of Bush's team.