Blair to meet Bush for Iraq talks (WAR STRATEGY TIME)

BBC News ^ | September 4, 2002 | BBC News

[MadIvan]

Downing Street has confirmed that UK Prime Minister Tony Blair is set to fly to America for talks with US President George Bush.

Mr Blair meets President Bush at his official Camp David retreat on Saturday when tackling the alleged threat posed by Iraq is certain to top the agenda.

Describing Iraq's Saddam Hussein as a serious threat, President Bush said: "I look forward to talking with Tony Blair about our mutual concern to make the world safer."

The UK prime minister on Wednesday again promised to produce a dossier of evidence against Iraq "in the next few weeks".

Dossier details

Visiting his Swedish counterpart in Stockholm, Mr Blair said the dossier would show why the United Nations was right to impose a weapons inspections regime on Iraq in the first place.

"That is material to do with chemical, biological, nuclear weapons of mass destruction and also on the nature of the regime," said Mr Blair.

The precise form of the dossier had yet to be decided, he said.

"It will be designed to show people why it is that adherence to those United Nations resolutions matters."

Gathering pace

Plans for the two leaders to meet were expected but their talks are to be held even sooner than expected.

Mr Blair's words at a special news conference on Tuesday and President Bush's message after facing questions from US congressional leaders on Wednesday have fuelled speculation about the prospect of military action.

The US president is to go to the UN next week, where he said he would "state clearly what I think".

"I will first remind the Unite Nations that for 11 long years Saddam Hussein has sidestepped, crawfished, wheedled out of any agreement he made not to develop weapons of mass destruction," he said.

"And so I'm going to call upon the world to recognize that he is stiffing the world."

'Persuasion needed'

Mr Blair has been warned his dossier of evidence against Iraq will have to be very convincing to stand any chance of limiting the unease about the prospect of military action.

Labour MP Bruce George, chairman of the Commons defence committee, said he hoped the promised dossier would be published in time for Labour's annual conference, in order to head off any potential unrest.

The TUC leadership is expected, at a meeting on Thursday, to welcome publication of the dossier - but will insist there must be no unilateral attack on Iraq and that the United Nations must be consulted.

[Constitution Day]

No, I missed it. We had supper w/ my parents.

[texasbluebell]

I've been very impressed with Tony Blair this past year, unlike earlier during the clintoon regime, when I viewed him as another pea in that pod. Blair has come around and it is under his leadership that among all our old allies from WWII, only Britain is in our camp today, and remains our old friend.

What was it that Churchill said? We are one people separated by a common language...or something along those lines. (At least I think it was Churchill; I always assume anything pithy or memorable was said by him anyway.)

photos from just a few days after 9-11.

[claptrap]

Dont worry Iraq, these two wobblies arent going to do anything. They still havent figured out the worldwide muslim conspiracy even though the damn muslims have announced their plans, these two goofs are afraid of being politically incorrect.Besides that Bush keeps saying Islam the religion of peace! Incidentially muslims are required to kill their own children if they convert away from Islam! But they are
so peaceful and loving and caring!

[blam]

"The "scoop".....explain that blam........don't follow you."

All the inside information that has not yet been revealed that will convince 'us' that we must go into Iraq.

[Orangedog]

Don't be surprised when in the next few weeks the White House releases definitive evidence that ties Saddam to not only 9/11, but to the WTC bombing in 1993 and the OKC bombing in 1995.

There will be a lot of people asking why this case was not made a lot sooner, since the National Security Counsel likely knew this by the end of September 2000. My own personal opinion is that the nation was more than a little angry after 9/11 and if it was announced at that time that Iraq was heavily involved, the people would have called for, if not outright demanded, that Bush give the order to nuke Iraq. That demand was harder to make with Afghanistan because lack of any organized government or military. The Taliban were calling the shots in that country, but there just wasn't that much to call the shots over. Plus, it can be argued that Afghanistan was technically occupied by an outsiders, since most of the Taliban were from other countries.

[Orangedog]

Oops, that date should have been September 2001, not 2000.

[McGavin999]

All Bush has to do at the UN is remind those wimps that THEY are the ones who laid down the rules that Saddam is breaking and if they don't do something about it the UN is rendered useless. If they are not going to stand behind their words then they might as well close the doors and everyone will go have to just go home.

No more glamourous lives as ambassadors to the UN, no more immunity, no more free lunches, no more limosines, just go home.

It's a pretty easy case to make and I'm sure he's going to make it. The UN wussies will demand that Saddam be given one more chance to comply with weapons inspection. Saddam will give in, allow the inspectors to return but as soon as they even look like they're getting close he'll shut it down. We'll start bombing 5 minutes later.

The thing is the demand must be strong. "You will allow inspectors in by XX-XX-02, they may go where ever they choose unescorted, they may stay until they are convinced there are no weapons. We will arrive at a given date and if we are not permitted to enter the war is on."

[McGavin999]

You have an appropriate screen name. Most of your stuff is "claptrap"

[Constitution Day]

Thought you both may like these links:

Complete Speeches of Winston Churchill
Famous Quotes & Stories of Winston Churchill

[Dog]

You seem to have wandered away from your mental health minder today....claptrap is a good choice for what your spewing..

[texasbluebell]

They still havent figured out the worldwide muslim conspiracy even though the damn muslims have announced their plans, these two goofs are afraid of being politically incorrect.

Has it not occurred to you that perhaps there is a case for not rushing headlong into a battle before we were prepared to do so? Bush has probably had to keep the lid on the country's anger until our weapons stock was rebuilt. We were not ready to pursue this war until we had built up after the depletion of the military in the 90s.

I don't for one minute think that Bush or Blair are being hoodwinked by the moslems. We would get an earful if we could hear what they say in private, I just have a feeling.

[texasbluebell]

Thanks for those Churchill links! Great! Such stirring prose. Nobody had quite his way with words.

[TonyInOhio]

An Anglophile Bump.

I've been regularly amazed by the PM; though I long for a Thatcherite for the sake of your islands, Blair has proven himself to be a genuine friend. Would that our neighbors the Canucks act the same!

Thanks for the post, Ivan.

FReegards,

Tony

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for finding this and posting this.

Tony appears to be even more serious about erasing Saddam and his insane followers than with the Talibunnies and Al Qaeda Goat Humpers in Afghanistan. He was damn serious then.

I have been a long time fan of the Brit Code Crackers and their intel service.

The firmness that Tony is showing, indicates to me that Brit Code Crackers and Intel people have some really scary documentation about the Insane Mass Murderer, Saddam.

Time to kick Saddam's A$$ and sieze his gas!

[GretchenEE]

bump

[hchutch]

Too bad that Blair's honesty is not common among the left.

[Smile-n-Win]

Blair is looking pretty serious:

Don't you think?

Oh yeah. I like that expression on his face!

[GretchenEE]

It is so appropriate for Blair and Bush, as they discuss strategy just prior to Bush's address to America on September 20, 2001, to be standing under the portrait of John Adams, America's first Ambassador to Britain.

[GretchenEE]

I don't think we're going to be hiring weapons inspectors as a prelude. I get the sense that Bush believes the years have come and gone for that. Rumsfeld made the case quite forcefully that our best intelligence on where the WMD's were stored in Iraq came not from weapons inspections, but from family members who defected, who were later slaughtered (God only knows what torture they endured first) by Saddam.

[GretchenEE]

Dear Constitution Day, you have MADE my day with those Churchill links! I'm reading Roy Jenkins' bio of him and have wanted something like you provided @29.