They loved Tony Blair in Congress. We love him in America -- alas.

An anecdote, from Newsweek:

It was Thursday, March 20. The United States had begun bombing Baghdad in the predawn hours, catching Tony Blair by surprise. According to a new inside account of the prime minister at war, “Thirty Days,” by British journalist Peter Stothard, the assault started before Blair expected.

As his inner circle knew, this historical footnote would feed criticism among Britons that he was little more than President George W. Bush’s “poodle” in Iraq. Now, as the P.M. huddled with his aides to prepare for an address to the nation, he didn’t need to be reminded of that. “How should I start?” he asked. Blair’s smart-aleck communications czar, Alastair Campbell, had a suggestion: How about, “My fellow Americans ...”