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Blair warns that marchers will have 'blood on their hands'
The Sunday Telegraph ^ | February 16, 2003 | Colin Brown and Francis Elliott

Posted on 02/15/2003 5:58:20 PM PST by MadIvan

Tony Blair warned the estimated one million anti-war protesters in Britain yesterday that they would have blood on their hands if they succeeded in stopping action to depose Saddam Hussein.

As mass marches took place in cities around the world, the Prime Minister used his strongest terms so far to confront the critics of military action, including some in his Cabinet.

He told Labour's Spring conference in Glasgow: "Ridding the world of Saddam would be an act of humanity. It is leaving him there that is inhumane." There would be "consequences paid in blood" for failing to disarm the Iraqi dictator, he added.

The Telegraph has learned that the Prime Minister avoided a Cabinet split by holding private talks before his speech with Clare Short, the International Development Secretary, to secure her support for putting a "moral case" for toppling Saddam.

A Downing Street official said: "He had lengthy discussions with Clare about the humanitarian aspects of the speech. There is absolutely no problem with Clare."

Mr Blair challenged his party to support his leadership, saying: "I do not seek unpopularity as some badge of honour, but sometimes it is the price of leadership."

Cabinet colleagues said his speech amounted to a "back me or sack me" ultimatum and that it was an unprecedented political gamble by the Prime Minister. Hilary Armstrong, the Chief Whip, said: "This is something that he's considered carefully. He is aware of the dangers to himself of this."

Mr Blair has also secured the support of other potential Cabinet critics of a war on Iraq, including John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, who will back his stand in a speech to the conference today, and Margaret Beckett, the Environment Secretary.

One senior minister said: "Everybody is worried, but I don't see anybody in the Cabinet who doesn't understand that the balance of the argument is in backing action if necessary."

David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, said the crisis was "one of the more difficult" in the past 40 years for Labour. In a message to those who had "left the party or who were toying" with quitting, he urged the Labour "family" to "pull together and stick together".

However, Diane Abbott, the Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, gave warning that members were threatening to tear up their cards. "Blair is risking liquidating his own party," she said.

Mr Blair's allies conceded that there could still be a Cabinet split if he failed to win a second resolution at the United Nations Security Council.

Robin Cook, the Leader of the House, is regarded as the most likely to quit the Cabinet if Mr Blair decides to back United States-led military action without a second resolution.

The Prime Minister will try to revive his hopes of avoiding a French veto for a second resolution when he confronts President Jacques Chirac at the European Union emergency summit on Iraq in Brussels tomorrow.

Mr Blair said UN weapons inspectors should be given more time in Iraq, but he remained committed to action "within weeks, not months" if Iraq refused to disarm.

Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General, warned Baghdad last night that a new Security Council resolution could be forthcoming.

He said: "I believe that the inspectors should continue their work, but if there is no co-operation then the council will see that the operation has become meaningless and that inspections could end. The ball is again in the Iraqi leadership's court."

While Mr Blair made no reference to a second UN resolution in his speech, Downing Street later insisted that he remained committed to seeking a "final verdict" on Iraqi failure to disarm. "He still has confidence in the UN and he still has confidence in Hans Blix," said an aide.

Another official at Number 10 said Mr Blair was "not exactly upbeat" but that "his moral certitude is as strong as ever on this".


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; US: District of Columbia; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: anarchists; antiamericawar; antibush; anticapitalism; antisemitism; blair; blix; bush; iraq; notapeacemovement; saddam; socialists; uk; un; usa; usefulidiots; warlist
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To: Harmless Teddy Bear
I have been trying to imagine what kind of threat would make a Prime Minister risk his position and go against his own party.

An imminent nuclear or biological one, I'd imagine.

41 posted on 02/15/2003 7:19:41 PM PST by Mr. Mojo
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To: lavocat
Speaking out against the liberation of the Nazi death camps would constitute having blood on one's hands. Speaking out in favor of Saddam Hussein is to have blood on one's hands, too.
42 posted on 02/15/2003 7:20:34 PM PST by Cultural Jihad
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To: MadIvan
You Brits have some good Prime Ministers.
43 posted on 02/15/2003 7:21:47 PM PST by Porterville
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Comment #44 Removed by Moderator

To: Mr. Mojo; MadIvan
I was in Britain (Cheshire) for a stopover 2 weeks back, and I must say the BBC program on Iraq made CNN seem like Fox News. It was depressing how glib they are about bashing Blair, discounting the Iraqi threat and raising oh so many false analogies .... this was right after powell and it really steamed me how they DIDNT EVEN REPORT ON WHAT POWELL SAID but simply dismissed stuff like "well the links with terror is the weakest part" (didnt bother mentioning what 'weak data' was given) and basically rallied around the head-in-the-sands approach and well if USA is saying X it is quite suspect for a Brit PM to say the same.

BBC is like Reuters with a nicer accent.

Coming out of that, I came to understand how the majority of Britons *might* be disaffected/brainwashed.
45 posted on 02/15/2003 7:22:17 PM PST by WOSG
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To: lavocat

"Keep Iraq Enslaved!"
46 posted on 02/15/2003 7:22:21 PM PST by Cultural Jihad
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To: MadIvan
Right on Ivan. You have a good man there, and allot of goofy people just like we have here. I have a really bad feeling that they will be sorry.
47 posted on 02/15/2003 7:24:21 PM PST by ezo4
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To: Eva
Went to 10 Downing Street and found this:

E-mail address for the Prime Minister:

At present there isn’t an e-mail address for the Prime Minister, although we are working on plans to introduce one.

If you would like to contact the Prime Minister please use the address provided below:

10 Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA

Alternatively you can fax 10 Downing Street on the following number: 0207 925 0918. Please ensure you include your full postal address in any correspondence

I can't see him not having an e-mail address. Probably for security reasons. Its a shame.

48 posted on 02/15/2003 7:24:37 PM PST by areafiftyone (The U.N. is now officially irrelevant! The building is for Sale!!!)
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To: lavocat
Blair isn't criticizing people for exercising their freedom of speech; he's critizing them for being willfully blind to the consequences of inaction. The inaction of Western Europe in the late 30's regarding Germany cost many millions of innocent lives, and Blair doesn't want to repeat that mistake.
49 posted on 02/15/2003 7:25:37 PM PST by Mr. Mojo
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To: lavocat

No, it was you:


Cultural Jihad: "You publicly stated that you attended a Saddam-enabling march."(source)

lavocat: "And...what does that prove? Yes I went, and I am glad I did."(source)



50 posted on 02/15/2003 7:27:52 PM PST by Cultural Jihad
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To: lavocat
"DOH" ALERT: ... IF THE *CONSEQUENCES* OF YOUR "FREE SPEECH" GETS PEOPLE KILLED, YES, YOU DO HAVE BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS!!

"Free speech" is not the danger!

THE DANGER IS THE POLICIES OF COMPLACENCY THAT LEAVES A MADMAN LIKE SADDAM IN POWER AND CAPABLE OF USING WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION. Blair is properly fighting the good fight to disarm Iraq or change the regime.
THIS EXCELLENT POLICY THAT CAN MAKE OUR WORLD MORE SECURE IS UNDERMINED BY THOSE WHO WANT TO APPEASE SADDAM. Anyone who opposes the Bush/Blair US/UK position is as of today aiding and abetting saddam hussein, known genocidalist.



51 posted on 02/15/2003 7:28:18 PM PST by WOSG
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To: Cultural Jihad
Amazing, ain't it? Brain dead Leftists give the impression they're in on all the secrets of the NSA and CIA, etc. But they don't know squat. All they really know is to have a happy old time, a chance to score some dope and lice and gather around the bandstand and hear some zilch rate "musicians".

Useful idiots, cowards and bedwetters all.
52 posted on 02/15/2003 7:28:24 PM PST by JoJo Gunn
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To: Mr. Mojo
You said it better than i did ... 100% correct, Sir!
53 posted on 02/15/2003 7:29:02 PM PST by WOSG
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Comment #54 Removed by Moderator

Comment #55 Removed by Moderator

To: WOSG
Good points on the British press. I hear the French press is similarly biased, perhaps even moreso. Hopefully many over there will start to poke around the internet for their news.
56 posted on 02/15/2003 7:31:08 PM PST by Mr. Mojo
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To: JoJo Gunn; lavocat
It is noteworthy that "lavocat" is a French surname, from that weasely country which has a sad and disgraceful history of giving terrorists safe passage through their backwater country on the moral-cowardly assumption that doing so will compel them to bomb and murder in other countries rather than in theirs.
57 posted on 02/15/2003 7:32:19 PM PST by Cultural Jihad
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Comment #58 Removed by Moderator

To: MadIvan
Tony Blair warned the estimated one million anti-war protesters in Britain yesterday that they would have blood on their hands if they succeeded in stopping action to depose Saddam Hussein.

No leader ever gets credit for averting a future calamity.

If Germany had been attacked in 1935 when Hitler announced that Germany was re-arming in violation of the Versailles Treaty, Adolf Hitler would have become a Peacenik martyr and the Allies, to this day, would have been condemned for attacking a poor and militarily weak nation.

59 posted on 02/15/2003 7:35:12 PM PST by Polybius
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To: Mr. Mojo; lavocat
lavocat -- That when you voice you opinion you have blood on your hands. It stands against everything I believe in. Freedom of speech is dangerous? Is that it?

Mr. Mojo -- Blair isn't criticizing people for exercising their freedom of speech; he's critizing them for being willfully blind to the consequences of inaction. The inaction of Western Europe in the late 30's regarding Germany cost many millions of innocent lives, and Blair doesn't want to repeat that mistake.

The above demonstrates the judgement of one anti and one pro.

60 posted on 02/15/2003 7:36:16 PM PST by FreeReign
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