'We Would Have Been Close Even If 9/11 Hadn't Happened'

By Con Coughlin - April 23, 2006 - London Telegraph

[Tony Blair] "My view of this has probably evolved since September 11. My view is that the origins of these security problems - with their mixture of secular dictatorships, religious fanaticism, failed nation states, governed, in every sense, by oligarchies - are the Middle East. This is a struggle that will only be won when, across the whole of the Middle East, there is a place for greater democracy, human rights, religious toleration and so on…"

[Con Coughlin] That makes you sound like a neocon, you know that?

"Yeah, but I think spreading democracy and human rights is very progressive. I can't quite get this idea it is supposed to be neocon."

The neocons, I pointed out, originally came from the Democrat wing of American politics.

"I just go with my instinct. But I keep saying to people: one of the greatest failures of progressive politics in my lifetime has been that, in the anti-American parts of the progressive Left, we have ended up on the wrong side with someone as evil as Saddam. Even now, when we have been there with a UN resolution, we are on the wrong side of the battle between terrorism and democracy. I can't understand how progressive people can be on the wrong side of that argument."

This is one of the most intriguing articles I have seen in quite a while. Tony Blair is clearly one of the world's leading progressives (socialists), but like another liberal (another branch of socialism), Christopher Hitchens, he is also very smart and very honest. What he is saying here is clearly heresy to the progressives in the democratic party.

I am in general agreement with much of the neocon agenda, as I think they are more "on track" with their analysis of the international situation than any other of the major political philosophies (including conservatives or libertarians) that are being espoused today. The neocons landing in the Republican Party is still one of the most amusing ironies of our current political alignment. They would still be democrats if socialists had not used "political correctness" to run them out of the party.

That said, the hostility with which the current political climate is permeated owes much of its intenstity to the recognition and embarrassment by many on the left that they are simply WRONG on the issue of islamofascism and muslim extremism. When hard core dedicated and unwavering liberals like Tony Blair and Christopher Hitchens are excoriating the progressives in the democratic party for the error of their position, you would think that at least a couple would listen.