more "homework" (and on Presidents' Day!)

I was reading this excerpt from Tony Blair's recent speech regarding his stance on Iraq, and I got to wondering... OK, I know the strident anti-war crowd tends to dismiss Blair as Bush's lap dog (specific breed, some sort of poodle - probably toy) but... if you are of the mindset that the Bush-Cheney crowd are motivated to oust Hussein, et al, by their lust for oil wealth, how do you account for Blair falling in line behind that? Are they going to cut him in on the profits somehow? Is he such an inveterate imperialist that he can't pass up any chance to dictate to darker-complected peoples how they ought to behave? Seriously, what is the leading explanation for Blair's opinions and behavior, from the folks who think this is all about the oil? Or really I'll take any conspiracy-minded theories for consideration at this point. At a glance it really seems like Blair is killing himself politically over his actual convictions.

Shit do I sound like I think I am clever and have caught antiwar people in some contradiction here? No, really, I am actually curious what people think. It doesn't seem to fit together. This does seem 'disingenuous' though huh? Like I am a stinker.

Hmmm I do see that the Cato Institute crowd are still against intervention. Interesting. Some good arguments, I would say. Of course they are Libertarians. Someone told me last week that Sarah Vowell is going around saying that Libertarians are Republicans who don't believe in God. Hunh.