A Gift of War

By J.F.O. McAllister

Tony Blair strides back from first class on a chartered flight from Cairo to London, lugging a large, scuffed red leather box of the sort that has held papers for British Cabinet ministers since the days of Gladstone. He is wearing a pair of khakis and a white shirt with the top two buttons undone, revealing a surprisingly buff chest (his aides won't confirm that he pumps iron, just that he plays a lot of tennis). He delivers the box to a secretary and joshes easily with a communications technician. Already this day he has been in Oman and Egypt, where he met with President Hosni Mubarak, given two press conferences in which his thoughts flowed in fluent paragraphs, and scrawled his instructions on all the memos in that red box. His armed forces are fighting the Taliban, the only ones to join the U.S. so far. Since Sept. 11, he has zoomed to Europe, Pakistan, India, Russia, the U.S. and the Middle East to invigorate the anti-bin Laden coalition. And he has recalled Parliament three times. Yet the British Prime Minister looks relaxed, serene--not happy, but confident, a man in full.

Clutching a coffee cup, he agrees with my calculation that it took him about half an hour to settle Britain's strategy after he received news of the Sept. 11 attacks: stand "shoulder to shoulder" with the U.S. to build a big coalition against terror, one that would include armed force. "I saw it in very simple, clear terms. I don't really see how you can see it any differently." The horror of the attack meant that the U.S. "would put its entire strength into dealing with the perpetrators." It would either "be left to do it on its own, or do it with other people." He concluded that "if the rest of the world gets with America, it's not just the right thing to do, it's the healthy"--meaning politically savvy--"thing to do." Blair is transfixed by the opportunities in this crisis. "This is a moment to seize," he said in a recent speech. "The kaleidoscope has been shaken. Soon [the pieces] will settle again. Before they do, let us re-order this world around us."

At first George W. Bush was wary of Blair, a socialist who had been Bill Clinton's soul mate. But the U.S. President judges people quickly and bluntly, and from their first meeting at Camp David last February, Bush aides confirm, his gut told him he liked Blair. There they had a long conversation about the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, whom Bush dismissed with "once a KGB man, always a KGB man." Blair had invested a lot of time getting to know Putin. He thought he was seriously trying to change Russia and suggested that Bush take a second look--which he did. (That has paid off enormously in terms of Putin's support since Sept. 11.) A White House aide gives Blair the ultimate Bush accolade: "He has really delivered." For his part, Blair says he finds Bush "extraordinarily focused. He will make up his mind but also listens to other minds." That view has helped convince Europeans that Bush may not be the bumpkin they first thought.

The paradox is that standing so close to Bush has given Blair a lot of running room. Flying to the U.S. on Sept. 20, he phoned Iran's President Mohammed Khatami to explore whether Iran might join the antiterror coalition and worked out a deal to send his Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, to Tehran; then he uncorked the plan to Bush over dinner. Bush was surprised, but immediately suggested that Straw tell the Iranians they could have a new relationship with Washington if they renounced terror. Blair knows from his travels that many Arabs who disdain Osama bin Laden's terror nevertheless distrust America; accordingly he has pressed for bountiful long-term international aid to Afghanistan, and last week made news by promising a quick push for Israeli-Palestinian peace. None of this directly contradicts Bush's own views. But by staying half a step ahead of the American juggernaut, Blair can keep nudging it in the direction of sustained diplomatic involvement in a messy world--something George Bush shied away from before Sept. 11.

It's a nimble performance, helped by the fact that few burdens weigh him down. Blair faces scant political opposition; his staff is a tiny band of veterans; and his campaign to win hearts and minds around the world, including instant rebuttals of bin Laden on Arab TV, follows a groove worn deep in the relentless political campaigns of New Labour. Britons wonder if "President Blair" is getting so engrossed in global architecture that he'll flub his promise to fix rotten schools and hospitals at home. But the mounting complaints before Sept. 11 about his sanctimony, slickness and control freakery have been smothered in an 88% approval rating for his leadership in the crisis. Both he and Bush have discovered a strange gift of war: the chance to reshape not only the world but their own futures.

--With reporting by James Carney and John F. Dickerson/Washington

With reporting by JAMES CARNEY AND JOHN F. DICKERSON/WASHINGTON