When Blair was elected I assumed he was a Brit version of Bill Clinton
When Blair was elected he made a lot of promises. He had the best spin doctors Britain had ever seen, and he kept his party "on message". He was also running against a Conservative government that had been in power for 18 years, so people wanted a change.
The last few years he seems to have grown some stones and actually said/did what he THINKS to be the right thing to do,
The last few years in Iraq he seems to have become interested in his "legacy". Lacking any clear vision of how to improve Britain (because everything he's done here has been disasterous) he's been looking for a cause that will elevate him to greatness and make people overlook the mess he's made of Britain.
As is usual for Blair, though, he got it wrong again.
Being 5 time zones away, there is far more I DON'T know about him than what I do, but the man has my admiration
Here's just one thing that should tell you all you need to know about Blair. He's committed Britain to 2 simultaneous wars, in Iraq and Afghanistan. At the same time, he's been reducing the military budget, which is now lower in real terms than it was when he came to office in 1997 (which was at the height of the peace dividend)
This week, the former head of the army (until earlier this year), said that the government is refusing to give the army the resources necessary for the jobs they are asking them to do.
How can you admire a man who sends troops into battle without funding them properly? It's not even as if money is tight, his government has vastly increased public spending.