Why Blair Hit The Right Note

"SOME might have preferred Tony Blair to make his best-ever Prime Ministerial speech to Parliament, but there was a certain aptness to the setting of the Labour Party Conference. In recent years, traditional words like "solidarity" and "internationalism" have fallen into disuse or been considered faintly embarrassing in Labour circles. Indeed, Mr Blair didn't use them himself. But they were the underpinning principles of his oration and they are the reason why it worked. He got all the essential points right.

Anybody could have been a victim of the death-squad attack on the most cosmopolitan city in the world and thus we must think and act as if we have all been hit. This solidarity is international by definition and requires a view of the world as our common home and of the death-squads and their sponsors as our common enemies.

Mr Bush could have said as much, and he almost did, though not quite in the same terms, and using the word "America" in every other sentence. But Mr Bush could not have written the speech he read to Congress. Nor would he have been as consistent in his internationalism, stressing the misery of Africa and the injustices of the Middle East. Nor would he have mentioned the Kyoto accords on global warming; a problem from which he seems to believe that the United States is exempt.

One of the Prime Minister's unstated objectives, one hopes, is to gently remind the man in Washington that he cannot treat globalisation as a one-way street.

Mr Blair also grasped another vital point, which is that we owe some- thing to the people of Afghanistan. They did not elect the Taliban regime, which has reduced their women to the status of slave-objects and plunged a whole society into a mediaeval nightmare of superstition and beggary.

If the Taliban and the bin-Ladens would do this to their own people, what might they have in mind for us?

Blair seems to know this instinctively and to accept the consequences, which are "No Compromise". It is us or them; we did not start this but we can and must and will finish it. A very invigorating contrast to the dithering idiocies and self-blaming babble one hears in some quarters. It ought to go without saying that any response, however outraged and justifiable, should consciously seek to avoid embroiling or harming innocent Afghans who have already suffered enough.

But then again, why not state it plainly? The Prime Minister did just that. A fair warning has been given to the disgusting fanatics who occupy Kabul and who, as we speak, are forcibly conscripting young men into their army. They have been told they cannot win. If they try to put a human shield around the ghastly network that they incubate and shelter, then humanitarianism will find a way around that shield and will destroy the hostage-takers, mass-murderers and narcotics-traffickers who have made their own homeland into a desert.

Blair's speech had a bracing effect in Washington where - public rhetoric notwithstanding - there are still some who wish they could avoid the responsibility ahead, or perhaps hand it on to some Afghan mercenaries who will do the fighting by proxy.

Since the Prime Minister's remarks were accompanied by action - the moving into position of British forces, in some cases rather faster and rather nearer to the scene than the American ones - it has become crystal clear that this is not a task to be fobbed off.

If we mean even half of what we say about defending what is of value in civilisation, then we have to assume the burden ourselves. And, since civilians have been in the front line since the very first day of this, and will remain in the front line while the death-squads look for an opening for even more terrible actions, there need be no embarrassment about cheering on our forces from the rear. Some of them are probably safer than we are.

But those who take on the Taliban today, and who will be working in the dark to grapple with those who escape justice to try and spread infection and death, will also be on the front line for culture and humanity. It does no harm, as they set off, for a Prime Minister to speak up boldly and to call things by their right names. What if we fail? What if there are reprisals? The answer to this is simple, and Blair put it in plain words. There may well be reverses.

There will almost certainly be further atrocities, though to dignify them by the name of reprisals is to degrade the language. But we have no alt-ernative. The option of not combating this evil does not exist. One might spare a moment to remember Kosovo. All through that campaign there were those who muttered that it would not work, that it would increase support for Milosevic, that it was none of our business anyway, and that it might annoy the Russians or the Chinese. One cringes to remember these arguments.

Milosevic is in jail, where he belongs. The Kosovo refugees got home, where they belong. The sky did not fall. This will be tougher. So must we be, therefore. The great thing with any important enterprise is to start as you mean to go on. Mention of the Kosovo operation also reminds us of the way in which a British Labour leader can make a difference in Washington itself.

If Tony Blair is something of a hero in the American press and public opinion today, it is not just because he knows the meaning of the word "alliance". It is because he is prepared to fight an individual corner. Again, this is not the "poodle" role some so sneeringly attribute to him. By announcing that the war will now be taken directly to the enemy, Tony Blair has hit precisely the right note."

Greater cooperation both politically and economically does not mean the start of the New World Order.

As for Tony Blair being a socialist he is actually what we call a Free Market Liberal. He is hated by the socialist's

There is too much of a tendency to fit what people do into a grand conspiracy, from both the Left and the Right.

You might be interested to know that there are some who believe that the terrorist attack on the WTC was plotted by the NWO to initiate the start of the World take over, and your President was involved.

Where do we draw the line on these conspiracy’s do we believe some and not others.

Tony Blair likes to think of him self as a world statesmen, and so has every other Prime Minister we have had, every leader Europe has had, and with a few exceptions every President you have had were they all members of this NWO plot.

Tony

Tony Blair is as blood thirsty as they UN and Clinton,will stop at nothing for wealthy an power. Blair is a product of Bill Clinton. Blair, Clinton and they UN worked hand in hand when it came to Slaughter and Wealthy. A Scotish Co. that sits in London bought Arco and Amaco, American oil companies and they wanted to creat a monopoly on oil. Were every their is oil Blair and the UN are willing to bomb, killing innocent people. Bush is more talk than action. You have to remember nobody could have attacked this country with out the help of our elected officials. Our elected officials put us in this spot, they tore down our security and closed most of our bases. We pay them to protect us instead they left us wide open for terrorist attacks. They brought these people here. Today it's the Taliban tomorrow it will be Mexico. Mexico's Pres.Fox a product of the Clinton goons come here to check on his interests. Canada our friends is constanly being snubbed by Bush. Bush calls Fox his closes friend. Mexico gets our jobs,puts Americans out of work and they still come here by the millions to take our jobs in this country, many of them are collecting welfare, food stamps and free medical. Children being brought in tossed from home to home to get benefits. Henderson,Nevada is the home front for illegal immegrants. Their packed in like sardines and than spread thru Nevada and this country. Henderson also seems to being the home front for other countries as well in the last several years. A California shampoo company was hoboring most of them. They all go there to work when they first get there and not just Mexicans. They are buying up many of the old town site homes that were built during war time. Where are they getting their citizenship papers from or don't they need them to work or drive in the state of Nevada? Nobody speaking out on the enormous amount of illegal immegrants that are their but it is so bad that if they all decided to go on strike they could cripple Las Vegas and surrounding areas.

they said the same thing about Hitler :-).....I would not trust him...one speech that many may see as being in support of going after Americas number one boogie man does not a great man make....how do you feel about kissing the pound goodbye?

That's more than slightly unfair. Blair did go over the top about the Euro, but so long as Gordo is chancellor, forget it - he likes power too much for him to recommend the Euro.

Even so, it'll be killed in a referendum - a referendum which would be a gift to the Tories.

Again, you are seeing things from an "all good" or "all evil" perspective - what I'm saying is that Blair is right about this issue, and he has been courageous in what he's done - he has gone to Pakistan today where there are more people than not who want his head on a platter (I merely want him out of office).

Furthermore British troops are already engaged - the SAS is in Afghanistan, plus the Gurkhas, Royal Marines, Army, Navy (27 ships no less) are in the region. What the bloody hell do you want him else to do to prove he's being a resolute ally? Signing his soul over to you in a deed drawn up in blood is not likely.

Ivan

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