Tony Blair Refuses Congressional Medal of Honor
Tony Blair, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, has declined the Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest military honor bestowed by the United States. President Bush wishes to present it in honor of the UK’s support of the Iraq war, even as most of the rest of the world criticized the military action. Blair has said that he cannot accept the award while thousands of US and British troops continue to place their lives on the line in Iraq. The Bush reelection campaign expects that an appearance by Blair, who is immensely popular in the US, would provide a boost in the polls.
On a related note, why does no one notice that Blair is the leader of the Labour party in the UK, which while barely middle-left in its home country, would be to the extreme left in the US. If Blair were running for President here, you can safely assume the Karl Rove would be labeling him a pinko communist…
December 28th, 2004 at 4:10 pm
Great story about the Medal of Honor for Blair, but it didnt happen. The CMOH cannot be awarded without Congressional approval and, while it is not required to be a U.S. citizen, you must be in the U.S. military in order to qualify for the Medal of Honor
December 28th, 2004 at 6:08 pm
That’s very interesting – looks like you’re right. I looked into it a little farther and it appears (according to the Army website) that medals have only been awarded to foreign “unknown” soldiers from Belgium, Great Britain, France and Rumania. So did Bush inquire about it, or was the whole story fabricated? There seems to be a lot of internet content out there about this, but obviously that doesn’t necessarily imply much about it being the truth.