Tony Blair’s resolve

I just watched the second episode of the immensely entertaining British show The Thick of It, TiVo’d from last Friday.

It is such a corrosive “comedy” that I don’t know why I would ever believe even one word that comes out of the mouth of a politician after watching it…but Tony Blair continues to impress me with his determination to make the case for anti-totalitarianism and liberal humanist values. His forum this time was a joint news conference in Iraq with the new Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki.

And the answer to your Question is it worth it, is the fact that we are even here, having this conversation and discussion, as people in a country that is now a democracy and for all the challenges which we have to overcome, that is better surely than people living in dictatorship and we should refuse absolutely to believe that Iraqis are not entitled to the same rights and the same freedoms as people in our country or throughout the rest of the world

(via Andrew Sullivan)

Interestingly, John F. Burns of the New York Times provided some color commentary of the same news conference. The color is Revealing:

At one point, a BBC reporter asked him if he accepted that his “legacy as prime minister” depended on “the man standing next to you,” Mr. Maliki, implying that a failure of the new government would doom Mr. Blair’s standing in history. Another British reporter asked if Mr. Blair or Mr. Maliki “could honestly say” that Iraqis were better off than they were under Saddam Hussein.

Mr. Blair’s tone hardened. Proof that it had been worth it, he said, was evident because “you are able to put me, the British prime minister, and the Iraqi prime minister, under pressure” in a place where any challenge to authority was potentially fatal under Mr. Hussein. “The answer to your question, is it worth it, is the fact that we are even here having this conversation, in a country that is now a democracy.”

Interesting indeed. Is John Burns critizing his press colleagues for their belligerence?