Blair: We should be proud of Iraq role
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]James Sturcke and agencies[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Thursday February 22, 2007[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Guardian Unlimited[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Tony Blair addresses British soldiers in Basra in May 2003. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/AP[/FONT]
Tony Blair today said that Britain should be proud of its involvement in Iraq and denied he should take responsibility for the "very grim situation" in the country.
The prime minister, who yesterday announced the withdrawal of 1,600 of Britain's 7,100 troops in southern Iraq, dismissed suggestions that he failed to plan for the security of the country after the removal of Saddam Hussein four years ago.
He appeared to leave the door open to the possibility of sending more British troops back to Iraq if the situation deteriorated.
"We have the full combat capability that is there, so if we are needed to go back in in any set of circumstances, we can. The whole purpose of us being in a support role is precisely to do that," he said.
Mr Blair insisted that the fact the Iraqi army had been "built up from scratch" to today's level of 130,000 showed the coalition had thought through the aftermath of the war. He said he disagreed with the former UK special envoy to Baghdad, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, that no one was thinking about the vacuum created by the removal of Saddam.
"The fact is that it was a terrible situation under Saddam Hussein. It is better now that he has gone, but you are right it is a very grim situation in Iraq," he told the BBC's Today programme. "The vacuum is created when you remove a bloody dictatorship.
"These forces that are operating in Iraq at the moment are not the fault of a lack of planning or administration. It is a deliberate attempt [by] external extremists, like al-Qaida [and] like elements connected to Iran, who are linking up with internal extremists to thwart the will of the majority."
Mr Blair said he could not take responsibility himself for people who were taking car bombs into markets and killing innocent people. He insisted that 80 to 90% of the current unrest was in Baghdad and that the Iraqi army in Basra was telling the British it was ready to carry out the day-to-day campaign against insurgency.
"I am not suggesting that Basra is in the place it needs to be. We are not yet ready to hand over full control of Basra. There has been significant improvement and the Iraqi forces are saying to us that they can take these elements on."
Mr Blair did not deny that the Iraqi police was infiltrated by elements loyal to local militias but insisted the Iraqi army was increasingly capable of keeping order.
The coalition's purpose in Iraq was to ensure that the country remained a democracy, Mr Blair said, and allow the economy to grow.
Mr Blair dismissed claims that a decision was taken in Washington to invade Iraq regardless of the intelligence on Saddam Hussain's weapons of mass destruction.
"The idea that there had been an irreversible decision taken there is one of these conspiracy theories that come in and out of the saga," he said.
The prime minister said there were no plans for military action against Iran and stressed his commitment to finding a diplomatic solution to the dispute over Tehran's nuclear programme.
"I can't think that it would be right to take military action against Iran," he said.
"I think what is important is to pursue the political, diplomatic channel. I think it is the only way that we are going to get a sensible solution to the Iranian issue. I know of nobody in Washington that is planning for military action against Iran. You can't absolutely predict every set of circumstances that comes about, but Iran is not Iraq."
Mr Blair defended his record of foreign policy interventions during his 10 years in office.
"I think we can be proud of the interventions we have made," he said. "In removing the dictatorships that we have from Sierra Leone, from Kosovo, from Afghanistan and Iraq, yes, I believe the world is a better place, for the removal of those dictators."
He warned that Britain could not afford to ignore problems in other parts of the world as ultimately they would affect this country.
"If we let Sudan get any worse, if we let Somalia crumble, if we don't intervene to try to help those countries in Africa, at some point in the world in which we live today, those problems will come back and visit themselves upon us," he said.
guardian.co.uk
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]James Sturcke and agencies[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Thursday February 22, 2007[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Guardian Unlimited[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Tony Blair addresses British soldiers in Basra in May 2003. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/AP[/FONT]
Tony Blair today said that Britain should be proud of its involvement in Iraq and denied he should take responsibility for the "very grim situation" in the country.
The prime minister, who yesterday announced the withdrawal of 1,600 of Britain's 7,100 troops in southern Iraq, dismissed suggestions that he failed to plan for the security of the country after the removal of Saddam Hussein four years ago.
He appeared to leave the door open to the possibility of sending more British troops back to Iraq if the situation deteriorated.
"We have the full combat capability that is there, so if we are needed to go back in in any set of circumstances, we can. The whole purpose of us being in a support role is precisely to do that," he said.
Mr Blair insisted that the fact the Iraqi army had been "built up from scratch" to today's level of 130,000 showed the coalition had thought through the aftermath of the war. He said he disagreed with the former UK special envoy to Baghdad, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, that no one was thinking about the vacuum created by the removal of Saddam.
"The fact is that it was a terrible situation under Saddam Hussein. It is better now that he has gone, but you are right it is a very grim situation in Iraq," he told the BBC's Today programme. "The vacuum is created when you remove a bloody dictatorship.
"These forces that are operating in Iraq at the moment are not the fault of a lack of planning or administration. It is a deliberate attempt [by] external extremists, like al-Qaida [and] like elements connected to Iran, who are linking up with internal extremists to thwart the will of the majority."
Mr Blair said he could not take responsibility himself for people who were taking car bombs into markets and killing innocent people. He insisted that 80 to 90% of the current unrest was in Baghdad and that the Iraqi army in Basra was telling the British it was ready to carry out the day-to-day campaign against insurgency.
"I am not suggesting that Basra is in the place it needs to be. We are not yet ready to hand over full control of Basra. There has been significant improvement and the Iraqi forces are saying to us that they can take these elements on."
Mr Blair did not deny that the Iraqi police was infiltrated by elements loyal to local militias but insisted the Iraqi army was increasingly capable of keeping order.
The coalition's purpose in Iraq was to ensure that the country remained a democracy, Mr Blair said, and allow the economy to grow.
Mr Blair dismissed claims that a decision was taken in Washington to invade Iraq regardless of the intelligence on Saddam Hussain's weapons of mass destruction.
"The idea that there had been an irreversible decision taken there is one of these conspiracy theories that come in and out of the saga," he said.
The prime minister said there were no plans for military action against Iran and stressed his commitment to finding a diplomatic solution to the dispute over Tehran's nuclear programme.
"I can't think that it would be right to take military action against Iran," he said.
"I think what is important is to pursue the political, diplomatic channel. I think it is the only way that we are going to get a sensible solution to the Iranian issue. I know of nobody in Washington that is planning for military action against Iran. You can't absolutely predict every set of circumstances that comes about, but Iran is not Iraq."
Mr Blair defended his record of foreign policy interventions during his 10 years in office.
"I think we can be proud of the interventions we have made," he said. "In removing the dictatorships that we have from Sierra Leone, from Kosovo, from Afghanistan and Iraq, yes, I believe the world is a better place, for the removal of those dictators."
He warned that Britain could not afford to ignore problems in other parts of the world as ultimately they would affect this country.
"If we let Sudan get any worse, if we let Somalia crumble, if we don't intervene to try to help those countries in Africa, at some point in the world in which we live today, those problems will come back and visit themselves upon us," he said.
guardian.co.uk