Blair confronts Iraq head on
Tony Blair has used his speech to the Labour Party to confront his critics on Iraq head on.
Addressing the conference with the backdrop of British hostage Ken Bigley still being held in Iraq, and hunting protestors outside, Mr Blair told delegates: “So here we are again – my toughest week yet, since the last one, until the next one”.
After a brief interruption from the floor from an anti-war protestor, the Prime Minister stated: “That’s alright sir, you can make your protest – just thank God we live in a democracy and we can.”
Tackling directly the question of trust, Mr Blair said that it had never been his intention to put aside discussion of Iraq, saying: “I want to deal with it head on.”
“The evidence about Saddam having actual biological and chemical weapons, as opposed to the capability to develop them, has turned out to be wrong. I acknowledge that and accept it.
“And the problem is I can apologise for the information that turned out to be wrong, but I can’t, sincerely at least, apologise for removing Saddam. The world is a better place with Saddam in prison not in power.”
The Prime Minister said that he completely understands why his decisions have divided the country, but he believes that the threat facing the world is “a wholly new phenomenon, worldwide global terrorism based on a perversion of the true, peaceful and honourable faith of Islam; that’s its roots are not superficial but deep, in the madrassehs of Pakistan, in the extreme forms of Wahabi doctrine in Saudi Arabia, in the former training camps of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan; in the cauldron of Chechnya; in parts of the politics of most countries of the Middle East and many in Asia; in the extremist minority that now in every European city preach hatred of the West and our way of life.
“If you take this view, you believe September 11th changed the world; that Bali, Beslan, Madrid and scores of other atrocities that never make the news are part of the same threat and the only path to take is to confront this terrorism, remove it root and branch and at all costs stop them acquiring the weapons to kill on a massive scale because these terrorists would not hesitate to use them.”
He said that he believes terrorists are not in Iraq or Afghanistan to liberate the countries, arguing: “They are not provoked by our actions; but by our existence.
“They are in Iraq for the very reason we should be. They have chosen this battleground because they know success for us in Iraq is not success for America or Britain or even Iraq itself but for the values and way of life that democracy represents.
“They know that. That’s why they are there. That is why we should be there and whatever disagreements we have had, should unite in our determination to stand by the Iraqi people until the job is done.”
Rejecting criticism that he cares more about foreign affairs than domestic affairs, he said: “It’s simply that I believe democracy there means security here; and that if I don’t care and act on this terrorist threat, then the day will come when all our good work on the issues that decide people’s lives will be undone because the stability on which our economy, in an era of globalisation, depends, will vanish.”
He also pledged to tackle the conditions in which terrorism breeds, and make the revival of the Middle East process his “personal priority.”
