Safire - Who will stay, who will go?

It was a cheekly little piece by American political warhorse William Safire (a former speechwriter to Tricky Dicky Nixon, no less) in the op-ed page of Tuesday's Age, and no doubt in the NYT sometime recently.

Check out this bit of crystal-ball gazing...

Dare to think the unthinkable: what would the Western alliance look like if Bush and Blair receive fresh mandates, and Chirac and Schroeder give way to leaders who see the modern collective defence in sponsorship of freedom outside their area?


Truth be known, this possbility is not so unrealistic. Recent Canadian elections saw Paul Martin's Liberal Party reduced to minority government with a big swing to the conservatives, in spite of Martin's opposition to involvement in Iraq, which is supposed to be the make or break issue in polls around the world. Blair is facing a demoralised opposition, who supported involvement in Iraq and so are left with no where to go in opposing Blair.

So will Aznar be the exception or the rule?

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