布萊爾：習慣了被稱作布什的“哈巴狗”

布萊爾：習慣了被稱作布什的“哈巴狗”
Blair issues clarion call against US isolation

US President Bush and British PM Tony Blair

Prime Minister Tony Blair began his last trip here as British leader Wednesday, armed with a parting shot to global opinion that US isolation would make a restive world far more dangerous.

President George W. Bush greeted his closest foreign ally warmly before the two headed into a private dinner that aides said would be dominated by talks about the US-led "war on terror."

Blair looked startled by a barrage of flashes from photographers chronicling his last White House meetings with Bush before he steps down on June 27, after a decade in power. "You're a famous person," his host quipped.

The two leaders were due to hold a press conference in the White House Rose Garden Thursday, heralding the end to a tumultuous partnership forged in the heat of the September 11 attacks of 2001 and the war in Iraq.

Despite the crippling cost that his support of Bush inflicted on his popularity at home, Blair insists that he did the right thing.

"I believe our country should be a strong ally of America, and I've never had any problem with that," he said in an interview with US network NBC Tuesday.

"I think it will be a very dark day for my country when we do have a problem with it," Blair said.

"The biggest danger is if America disengages, if it decides to pull up the drawbridge and say to the rest of the world, 'Well you go and sort it out.' We need America engaged."

After famously discovering a shared taste for Colgate toothpaste at their first meeting, the Republican president and the British Labour leader marched in lock-step through many of the world's hot-spots over the past six years.

Blair said he had learned to live with taunts of being Bush's "poodle" or "lapdog."

"I've found him immensely straightforward to deal with, someone always true to his word and someone who's a very strong leader," he said.

The blood-soaked insurgency in Iraq and enduring threat from the Taliban in Afghanistan form part of a "broader global struggle," Blair added.

"And if we back away, if we give up on it, if we show any signs of retreat at all, then the enemy we face worldwide will be strengthened."

Bush paid his own fulsome tribute to Blair last Friday, after the British leader announced his departure.

"I'm going to miss him. He's a remarkable person. And I consider him a good friend," Bush said.

本週三，布萊爾最後一次以首相身份開始他的訪美之行，他的此次告別訪問引起國際輿論的猜測，美國失去盟友後會使如今不安寧的世界變得更加危險。

布什總統對他最親密的盟友表示了熱情問候，之後，二人單獨共餐。據工作人員介紹，兩位領導人的談話內容將以美國領導的“反恐戰爭”爲主。

在任十年、將於6月27日離任的布萊爾首相看到之前他與布什總統白宮會晤的一連串照片的幻燈片時，頗爲驚訝。布什調侃他說：“你真是一個人物啊！”

兩位領導人將於週四在白宮的玫瑰園召開新聞發佈會，這標誌着英美兩國在2001年“9·11”恐怖襲擊及伊拉克戰爭中所建立的合作伙伴關係即將結束。

儘管布萊爾首相因支持布什嚴重影響了他在國內的支持率，但他堅持自己的做法是對的。

他在本週二接受美國國家廣播電臺的採訪時說：“我認爲英國應成爲美國堅定的盟友，我從未懷疑過這一點。”

“如果我們對此有異議，那麼這對於我們國家來說將是十分可怕的。”

“如果美國退出了，如果美國決定撒手不管，向全世界宣佈，‘你們來處理吧！’這將是個最大的危險。我們需要美國的參與。”

自從布萊爾和布什在首次會晤時發現他們都對高露潔牙膏情有獨鍾後，兩人便開始在世界很多熱點地區並肩戰鬥，這一合作長達六年。

布萊爾說，他已經習慣了別人嘲笑自己爲布什的“哈巴狗”。

他說：“布什總統是個很坦率的人，他是一位信守諾言、十分堅決果斷的領導人。”

布萊爾說，伊拉克頻起的血腥暴動、來自阿富汗塔利班的不斷威脅已成爲“範圍越來越廣的世界鬥爭”的一部分。

“如果我們退出，如果我們放棄，如果我們表現出任何撤退的跡象，那麼我們所面臨的敵人將會強大起來。"

布萊爾首相宣佈即將離任之後，布什於上週五向他表達了自己“由衷”的敬意。

布什說：“我會想念他的。他是個不平凡的人。我視他爲好友。”

live with:承認；忍受（例如：I disliked the situation but had to live with it. 我對這種狀況不滿，但是沒辦法，只能忍受。）

be true to one's word:信守諾言

fulsome:offensively flattering or insincere（令人不快的恭維或虛僞的）