Jack Straw Forced Out?

...by Bush? Apparently.

(CBS/AP) Two London papers have speculated this weekend that complaints by President George W. Bush forced a British minister from his post because of his opposition to the use of nuclear force against Iran.

The Independent suggests that a phone call from the U.S. president to British Prime Minister Tony Blair led to the removal of Foreign Secretary Jack Straw Friday.

The newspaper reports that friends of Straw believe Mr. Bush was extremely upset when Straw pronounced any use of nuclear weapons against Iran "nuts."

Both The Independent and the Guardian write that Straw's "fate was sealed" after a White House phone call to Blair....

Straw said Britain would not launch a pre-emptive strike on Iran and he was as "certain as he could be" that neither would the United States. He said he has a high suspicion that Iran is developing a civil nuclear capability that in turn could be used for nuclear weapons, but there is "no smoking gun" to prove it and rationalize abandoning the plodding diplomatic process.

So here we have probably the third most important man in the British government, who was turfed for stating inconvenient facts.

Even more disturbingly, he seems to have been turfed on the orders of a foreign head of state. Exactly how deep does Blair's loyalty to Bush go?

Boy, if any country could ever use Conservatives in power, it's the UK today.