A Good Ally

Many of you know that British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, is retiring. He has been a great ally and friend of the United States. Here is what he had to say about the War in Iraq, when visiting the White House yesterday. The quote is from an article on the NPR website:

He [Blair] said he is proud of the choices he has made.

"It was right to remove Saddam, it was right to give the country a chance to have the democratic process, and it's right now to try to fight people who, by terrorism, are trying to disrupt that process."

Blair has been unwavering in his support of the war, and despite public outcry, he hasn't lost patience.

"The reason why people in Britain and people in America have lost patience, to an extent, is because they see the carnage and bloodshed going on and they say, 'This is now four years after the fall of Saddam. So, if that is still happening, that must mean it's wrong, that we shouldn't be doing it.' My question is, why is this bloodshed happening?" Blair said.

He said the conflict is being driven largely by al-Qaida and Iranian-backed groups and "a small minority of extremists" in Iraq who are combining their efforts to cause as much damage as possible so people lose faith and lose patience.

[My note: some people say the Operation in Iraq is a distraction from the overall Global War on Terror. But, as Prime Minister Blair notes, we're fighting Al Qaida in Iraq. Isn't that the War on Terror?]

"If we're confronted with something that's totally evil — to drive a car bomb into the middle of a crowded market and kill a hundred completely random, innocent men, women and children — [and] we end up saying, 'Since we're facing that battle and since it's tough and ugly and we're losing our troops and our forces and that's a tremendous thing of grief and anguish' … [and] we then back away, we've handed an enormous victory to the enemy we're fighting."

[My note: Again, I agree with the Prime Minister. No one wants to stay in Iraq any longer than we have to; however, if we leave, we are essentially handing Iraq over to Al Qaida.]

Blair said that most war critics think the U.S. and British response to Iraq and terrorism provoked more terrorism, and only made the situation worse. But he disagrees with that assessment.

"The fact is, September 11 came before Afghanistan or Iraq," Blair said. "This terrorism has been a generation growing; it will take a generation to knock it out."

He's right.