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".
If I were a leader like Blair or Bush, and it cost me the next election for doing what I thought was right, I would still do it.....
A liberal doesn't think this way. With them it's all about legacy, the next election, and what's best for the liberal party.
Great point, polybius. Someone recently posted the fact that just before the US entered WWII, a "peace petition" containing 1,000,000 signatures was delivered to Roosevelt. Betcha nobody who signed that petition wanted to mention it after the war was over!
lavocat -- French realy? What does it mean?
le Dictionnaire -- lavocat, (lay' vo cat), n, 1. washroom attendant
...and they have plenty of public lavatories in France.
I have a hypothesis: The US and British intelligence actually have a considerable amount of irrefutable evidence implicating France and Germany -- including Chirac and Schroder themselves -- in considerable trade with Iraq, including materials to produce WMDs in violation of UN sanctions. The US and UK have been reluctant to make these public, or even to reveal them to the Germans & French, because of a concern that vital intelligence sources be protected. However, the plan will be to make these known once "time is up," allied forces are in place and ready to go in, and the French, Germans, et. al. have continued to obstruct any effectual UNSC action. The purpose in making these revelations will be to utterly discredit France, Germany, and their leadership, to make things quite obvious -- to the publics of the US and the UK, at least -- that the issue of a 2nd UN resolution is moot, because the French and Germans are totally corrupt and hopelessly compromised. This will be the plan to rescue Tony Blair and the UK.
The price, of course, is that the rupture between the US & UK on the one hand and France, Germany, and Belgium on the other, will become total and permanent. NATO will not survive, neither will the UN, and the EU may split in two. It is not inconceivable that France and Germany might even break diplomatic relations with us.
This all might not be seen as actually being much of a downside. The point is, of course, that the old order has come to a close, the world is in the midst of one of those times of profound change, and the world that follows for the next decade or more will look very much different from the one we have become accustomed to for the past decade.
Your thoughts?
I was afraid Tony might start going wobbly after today's events.
He continues to (pleasantly) surprise me.
You won't hear any "Blairhead" cracks out of me again.
The EU as they thought it would happen is dead - and those self-aggrandizing "big" powers of Central Europe may well find themselves in the weeds as to influence after this is all done.
The awesome Kofi Annan rattles his spectacles at Saddam, who must be shaking in his jackboots at the prospect of yet another stern lecture from this paragon of political courage. [sacrasm off].
When this is all over, just watch Kofi try to take the credit for taking Saddam down.
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