MoD Information

Blair - Rally Behind Troops

Wed, March 19, 2003

Source: Ananova News

Tony Blair has urged MPs and the country to rally behind British troops, after winning backing from the Commons for military action against Iraq

Tony Blair has urged MPs and the country to rally behind British troops, after winning backing from the Commons for military action against Iraq. After the vote, Mr Blair's official spokesman said: "It is now time for all of us in Parliament and in the country to come together and show the support our Armed Forces deserve."

Appealing for support during a nine-and-a-half-hour debate before the vote by MPs, Mr Blair said it was palpably absurd to suggest Saddam had changed.

He warned the Iraqi leader was playing the same old games in the same old way, in defying United Nations resolutions.

Mr Blair said two "begetters of chaos" - tyrannical regimes with weapons of mass destruction and extreme terror groups - were now a real and present danger to the UK.

He said it was a tragedy that the diplomatic route had been blocked by the French veto threat and military action was now the only sure way to proceed.

Mr Blair added: "Back away from this confrontation now and future conflicts will be infinitely worse and more devastating in their effects."

He said to retreat now would strengthen Saddam beyound measure. "What will the other states who tyrannise their people, the terrorists who threaten our existence, what will they take from that? That the will confronting them is decaying and feeble."

In a clear hint that he would resign should MPs vote against the Government motion, Mr Blair insisted to loud cheers: "I would not be party to such a course."

Tory Leader Iain Duncan Smith backed the Government position, saying the use of military force was in the British national interest.