The Queen and President Bush at Buckingham Palace
Posted on 11/19/2003 6:32:42 AM PST by Mark Felton
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The Queen and President Bush at Buckingham Palace
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He told the audience at London's Banqueting House that the danger of terrorists using weapons of mass destruction aided by dictators represented "the greatest threat of our age".
He said: "The evil is in plain sight. The danger only increases with denial.
"Great responsibilities have fallen once again to the great democracies. We will face these threats with open eyes and we will defeat them."
President Bush said a global response was needed to such threats, along with a recognition that "in some cases the measured use of force is all that protect us from a chaotic world ruled by force".
He said the people of Baghdad had rejoiced on the fall of Saddam Hussein and now had the right to free speech as enjoyed in the UK and the US.
Who will say that Iraq was better off when Saddam Hussein was strutting and killing or that the world was safer when he held power? 
President George W. Bush
"The dictator had been given many chances to account for his weapons programmes. Now the resolutions he defied had been enforced.
"Who will say that Iraq was better off when Saddam Hussein was strutting and killing, or that the world was safer when he held power?"
'Alliance of values'
Defending the war in Iraq, Mr Bush said the UK and US shared "a mission in the world beyond the balance of power or the simple pursuit of interest".
"We seek the advance of freedom and the peace that freedom brings," he said.
"Together, our nations are standing and sacrificing for this high goal in a distant land at this very hour."
President Bush paid tribute to UK service personnel who died in the war in Iraq and those serving in the country.
The US president was given an official Royal welcome
And he said the UK and the US enjoyed a "very strong" relationship based on "an alliance of values".
He vowed that the coalition would not turn away from Iraq in the face of threats from "thugs".
He also reaffirmed his pledge to work towards a viable Palestinian state amid security for Israel.
Mr Bush was earlier welcomed by the Queen at a ceremony full of pageantry at Buckingham Palace.
The president's visit comes amid unprecedented security due to anti-war protests and increased terror fears.
Security review
Despite the intense policing the visit began amid claims the Mirror newspaper had exposed a breach in security.
The claims have prompted a Buckingham Palace investigation and Home Secretary David Blunkett has made a statement to MPs about the incident.
The Mirror newspaper claimed one of its reporters got a job as a footman in the palace using fake references and was set to serve the president's staff breakfast.
At Prime Minister's Questions, Tony Blair stressed the importance of Britain's relationship with the US.
Conservative leader Michael Howard paid tribute to Mr Blair's close relationship with Mr Bush.
The Stop the War Coalition predicts that 100,000 people will take to the streets on Thursday for the main protest against Mr Bush's visit.
The formal welcome for Mr Bush and his wife Laura from the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh came after a 41-gun salute.
They were driven the short distance from the Belgian suite, where they are staying, to be met by the Queen, Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Charles, Mr Blair and other dignitaries.
After the American national anthem was played they inspected the guard, before the Queen gave the president a private viewing of the Royal Collection of art.
Protest parties
As the president set out his defence of the war, peace campaigners are attempting to demonstrate their opposition in a series of protests across the capital.
Parliament Square, the South Bank and the Exxon-Mobil headquarters are among the locations earmarked for demonstrations.
A "roaming" Street Party and a Resist Bush Tea Party are also planned, while London Mayor Ken Livingstone has organised a peace party in City Hall for groups opposed to the war in Iraq.
Full route map of Thursday's protest
Mr Bush is due to meet British families of those who died in the 11 September attacks in New York, although a trip to the memorial gardens at the US Embassy was cancelled due to security concerns.
The president is also due to meet Mr Howard, who supported the war, and the Liberal Democrat leader, Charles Kennedy, who opposed it.
In the evening, Mr and Mrs Bush will be guests of honour at a state banquet at the Palace.
Scotland Yard has put in place a £5m operation which will see over 5,000 police on the capital's streets.
Police agreed the mass protest on Thursday could march up Whitehall after receiving reassurances from organisers that it would be peaceful.
He also emphasized my personal tagline for the last sevral weeks. All liberty flows from the barrel of a gun"
AND, the Dems are blind and their denial is putting Americans at greater risk. Thank goodness for Bush!
While Hitler was defying one treaty after another to build his massive military, other European nations (including England) looked for ways to appease Hitler and did whatever they could to avoid conflict with him.
It was obvious what Hitler was up to during the 1930s. The world knew about the persecution of the Jews and the concentration camps. The world knew that Hitler wasn't going to stop with reoccupying the Rhineland. Wasn't going to stop with absorbing Austria. And so on and so on. But you had your "peace activists" as you do today decrying any effort at all to deal with Hitler.
During this dangerous time, it is obvious that rogue nations and terrorist groups are looking for weapons of mass destruction to use against western civilization. Yet these same peace activist types are demonizing the few leaders (like they demonized Winston Churchill during the 1930s) who have stepped up to the plate to do something about it.
I think these peace activists, of the type who are protesting Bush in England today, are as reprehensible as the "peace for our time" folks of the 1930s.
When will we learn that pacifying evil never works?
It's already on the books.
Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz, who succeeded Adolf Hitler as Fuhrer of Nazi Germany on 01 MAY 45, was tried in 1946 at Nuremberg for crimes that occurred within German borders, as well as on the high seas.
I believe he was convicted of the second charge, and sentenced to 10 years incarceration.
It may eclipse the Reagan speech because Reagan was referencing a war that had been underway for 30 years. Reagans speech was the last rites for the USSR.
Bush's speech on the otherhand, is an opening statement on the new war on global islamofascism. He has unabashedly placed the war on terrorism in the same category of severity as the pre-WWII NAZIism.
In a very real way this speech launches WWIV.
The Cold War qualifies as WWIII.
Except that most Americans were at work. They will get the media's interpretation of this speech. It is necessary for GWB to speak to Brits directly as well, but we need a primetime speech here at home.
Actually, Americans heard very little stories about the concentration camps until after the war was over. It wasn't a major news item here before or during the war.
That sounds like a rather naive decision, doesn't it? Isn't that the same thing that the WTO anti-globalization protesters routinely promise, then ignore?
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