Blair is as dumb and fanatical as Bush, but with a richer vocabulary. That is the all.

"Yet the prime minister stubbornly defied this advice and endorsed the Bush administration's approach of foot-dragging on a UN ceasefire, allegedly to allow Israel more time to "knock out" Hezbollah.  Previous biographies, such as Anthony Seldon's excellent Blair Unbound, suggested Blair told aides that his attitude in summer 2006 was to retain "leverage" with both the US and Israel, fearing that to openly criticise them would lose him clout. Indeed, this was a reason often given for sticking with Bush in Iraq: to earn the right to guide and influence. Yet his memoir reveals no such pragmatic concerns, misguided as they proved to be. Instead, Blair declares a deep ideological motivation for opposing a ceasefire. He states: "If I had condemned Israel, it would have been more than dishonest; it would have undermined the world view I had come to hold passionately."  It is this world view that is most alarming about Blair's account. Through this lens, Blair believed: "Lebanon was embroiled in something far bigger and more portentous than a temporary fight with Israel." Instead, he sees it as a "wider struggle between the strain of religious extremism in Islam and the rest of us". He was thus willing to delay a ceasefire in order to win victory in this wider struggle, of which he saw Hezbollah as a key combatant, and Israel as one of "us".  From Blair's perspective this religious struggle defines the Middle East. He states: "To me, you can't understand Hezbollah unless you understand the role of Iran; or understand Lebanon unless you understand Syria … or understand either country in its present state unless you understand the history not just of the region but of the religion, how it saw itself, how it had developed its own narrative, how it saw its own predicament."  This includes a remarkable simplification of the Israel-Palestine conflict, which he claims "is used as a potent source of friction and war because of religious difference". The impact of other significant forces, notably nationalism and imperialism, are conveniently sidelined." (thanks Olivia)