Bush 'brainwashed' Blair on Iraq

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6195565.stm

Iraq's vice-president claims Tony Blair was "brainwashed" by President Bush into not setting a timetable for troop withdrawal from Iraq.

Tareq al-Hashemi suggested Mr Blair had supported his idea of announcing a timetable, but then changed his mind after talking to Mr Bush.

The two leaders discussed the issue about three months ago, after which the PM was to raise the issue with Mr Bush.

The US president has so far refused to set a timetable for troop withdrawals.

Speaking in New York, Mr Hashemi said Mr Blair had been convinced by his proposal for a timetable for withdrawal.

He told the Council on Foreign Relations: "It is quite unfortunate that your president made a sort of blackmail out of Mr Blair."

Siblings killed

He later told the BBC: "After a lengthy discussion with [Tony Blair]...I got the impression that he was becoming convinced about my team and he promised to take up this matter with President Bush within a couple of days.

"But I was observing the joint press conference that he made with President Bush after his visit and I saw him talking about something quite different, which gave me an impression that he raised this subject with President Bush and eventually he just changed his mind."

"I think he discovered that Mr Bush is still adamant that he's not going to declare some sort of timetable for withdrawal to avoid passing wrong messages to terrorism," he said.

Mr Hashemi, head of the Iraqi Islamic Party and one of the country's most prominent Sunni Muslims, was elected vice-president in April.

Days later his sister Meysoun, head of the women's affairs department for the party, was killed in a drive-by shooting in the capital Baghdad.

The attack followed the killing of one of Mr Hashemi's brothers earlier that month.

Bush the cowboy doesn't have a clue of what to do in Iraq! He is so intent on preserving his presidential "legacy", that no other matter comes before it, even if it means another 100,000 people must die in Iraq, By the time he figures out he was and is wrong, hundreds more of our sons and daughters will die. The only way to end this war is to impeach the both of them, the Dick and the Bush. I can't believe one American can see any good that will come from staying in Iraq. What are we going to achieve, stability, no f--king way. The situation is utterly pathetic. Leave now is the only rational answer. We have lost, get used to it. Lesson#1: Never invade a muslim country as every country that has tried in modern history has failed! Pull out and lick our wounds. I'm extremely proud of our military, they have performed magnificently, I am also much bereaved for all the casualtys, but staying makes not one bit of sense!