Dear Joshua,

I am sorry, but Tony Blair is no man's poodle, sir. That you now aspire to paint him so, or rather, to paint him less-than so, is unworthy of your site, and a disappointment to an avid reader of it. I would add, sir, that it is you rather than he who now yaps and fluffs his tail from that comforting ladies hand-bag? And though the fashionable mistress you court may come in time to pamper you, sweetie, she shall care more to bind you in gaudy pink ribbons than she ever shall to feed you.

But I know one thing. If we were under direct threat, America would be our ally. I know that its people enjoy, as we have seen, a vibrant competitive democracy; and that in America, Hispanics, blacks, Asians and former Europeans live together, worship in their different ways and can rise from the bottom to the top in a manner we could do well to emulate. I didn't agree with Michael Moore's film. But in America he was able to make it and be praised for it. This is called freedom. We are in danger of forgetting these simple truths.

And when America was attacked on 11 September 2001 - a brutal, unprovoked slaughter of innocent people, planned in the previous administration when Iraq and Afghanistan had not happened, when President Clinton was working flat out to secure peace between Palestinians and Israelis - that was an attack designed for the purpose of forcing American out of its role in the world; to get it to disengage from the Middle East; to remove it as an obstacle to the progress of the new fanatical extremism the terrorists represent.

- Tony Blair, Mansion House speech, 15 Nov 2004.

[Full Speech]

Hat tip to Eric the Unread, with whom I heartily concur.