Saturday, May 07, 2005
ONE DOWN, THREE UP
Didn’t really turn out that way, did it? Still, The Age remains defiant:
In the early hours of last Monday, 24-year-old Coldstream Guardsman Anthony Wakefield died as a result of wounds sustained that night during a routine patrol in al-Amarah, Iraq. Guardsman Wakefield was the 88th Briton killed while serving in Iraq since March 2003. Coming just days before the British general election, his death focused attention on what became the defining issue of the poll - and the one that more than any other turned electors against Prime Minister Tony Blair.
They turned against him by re-electing him. Let’s review some comments made prior to the Bush/Howard/Blair triple play:
"The Spain election may prove a watershed. It appears to have upended the conventional wisdoms which say that the security issue favours incumbents in general and the right side of politics in particular."—Chris Sheil
"Bush, Blair and Howard have lost control of the story. It’s fallen apart, and so have they."—Margo Kingston
"Blair is deeply damaged. It’s far from over here, there’s a lot that is going to happen and much of it could wash onto Howard. And it’s unravelling in America and Bush could lose the election next year."—John Pilger
"Why are Bush and Blair in such trouble ...?"—Alison Broinowski
"Any use of WMD will see Howard, Bush and Blair out of their jobs. If they retaliate with WMD’s the revulsion of the voting public will see them gone within days. If they don’t use WMD’s then coalition forces will be routed. A war with only one side using WMD’s is not really a war. It’s a massacre. Retreat will be the only option."—Stewart Kelly
"Unless the morally bankrupt administrations of Bush, Blair and Howard are removed, we will all have become terrorists."—John Richardson
"[Iraq] could cost Bush (and Blair) office."—Phillip Adams
"Let us reassure Howard, Bush, Blair and their hangers-on that they have every reason to be afraid, for they, not the Iraqi people, are the enemy and we are the majority."—John Pilger
"Hopefully foreshadowing Bush’s own future, Blair support is down to 35 percent. That’s a 14-point drop in a single month ... Bush’s other hard-line ally, PM Howard of Australia, is getting similarly pounded in the polls."—Daily Kos