Comment at end
17th May 2010
PRINCIPLES … IN PICTURES
“Let me explain, Hillary – “
[Original photograph by Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA, can be seen at Rentoul's.]
Asked if Britain would now pull back from its instinct to intervene where possible in humanitarian crises in poor countries, Hague said, “Would we intervene if we thought another Rwanda was happening? Yes, we would. Would we intervene if we saw another Balkan war unfolding? Yes, we would.”
Too difficult for the straight-talking Mr Hague?
Now – close your mouth please Hillary.
(More follows from Normblog)
Foreign policy prospects
Britain’s new foreign secretary William Hague was in Washington last week:
On foreign policy, it was fascinating to listen to the Foreign Secretary tic through the usual issue sets – Iran, Afghanistan, Europe, global development, humanitarian intervention, etc. – and to discover that there is hardly any distance between his coalition’s views and that of the Labour government it is succeeding…
Hague pointed out that, in opposition, his party had supported every one of Tony Blair’s major military interventions abroad, whether they were motivated entirely by humanitarianism or by more traditional security arguments – in Sierra Leone, in Kosovo, in Bosnia, in Afghanistan, and in Iraq. (The Liberal Democrats, his coalition partners, were the only British political party to oppose the Iraq invasion.)
Asked if Britain would now pull back from its instinct to intervene where possible in humanitarian crises in poor countries, Hague said, “Would we intervene if we thought another Rwanda was happening? Yes, we would. Would we intervene if we saw another Balkan war unfolding? Yes, we would.”
I think of the sort of person who went on the anti-war march of 15 February 2003 and periodically writes to the Guardian to complain of how undemocratic it is that they weren’t listened to. Their voice seems, also, not to have carried across the intervening seven years, to secure them a foreign secretary representing their views. Still, they might be able to rely on the Liberal Democrats doing the business within that coalition. We must wait and see. (Via.)
Thanks to John Rentoul, by way of Normblog, by way of Bobbie Johnson @ Twitter, back to the source – NewYorker
Tags: Balkans, Foreign Policy, Foreign Secretary, hague talks to clinton, Hillary Clinton, intervention, pictures, principles, Rwanda, Tony Blair, uk, usa, war crimes, war criminals, Washington, we support Blair's intervention policy, William Hague, yes we would intervene
