Why You'll Miss Tony Blair

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Yet that on its own is not a sufficient judgment on Tony Blair. He will forever be linked to George Bush, but in crucial ways they saw the world very differently. For Blair, armed intervention to remove the Taliban and Saddam was never the only way in which Islamic extremism had to be combatted. Far more than Bush, he identified the need to settle the Israel-Palestine dispute--"Here it is that the poison is incubated," he told Congress--if radical Islam was to lose its appeal. In Britain, while maintaining a mailed fist against those suspected of crimes, he tried to treat Islam with respect. He took the lead in ensuring that the rich nations kept their promises to aid Africa and lift millions from the poverty and despair that breed support for extremism. The questions Blair asked--When should we meddle in another nation's life? Why should everything be left to the U.S.? What are the wellsprings of mutual cultural and religious respect? How can the West show its strength without using guns?--will continue to be asked for a generation. We will miss him when he's gone.