Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Tony Blair Shows Up To Fight

Finally, it looks like Tony Blair is getting back into the game:


LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Tuesday will call for a global, interventionist approach to confront terrorism head on and win a battle over values and ideas.

"This is not a clash between civilizations, it is a clash about civilization," Blair will say in a speech this afternoon, according to extracts released by his official spokesman. "'We' is not the West.

'We' are as much Muslim as Christian or Jew or Hindu. 'We' are those who believe in religious tolerance, openness to others, to democracy, liberty and human rights administered by secular courts," he will say.

The speech, due to be given at a Reuters Newsmaker event, is the first of three that Blair plans to deliver on terrorism and the significance of Iraq and Afghanistan. The second will be given in Australia and the third in the United States.

"The only way to win is to recognize this phenomenon is a global ideology; to see all areas in which it operates as linked and to defeat it by values and ideas set in opposition to those of the terrorists," the speech will say.

Blair will say a belief in an "activist approach" to foreign policy, based on values and interests, is the theme underlying the government's approach to issues from Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Iraq, Afghanistan, to climate change and poverty in Africa.

Blair's spokesman played down fears the speech might ring alarm bells in Iran, which is locked in a battle of wills with the United States and Europe over its nuclear program.

"On Iran, we are engaged in an activist, interventionist approach. It isn't just sitting back waiting for Iran, it is trying to enforce through diplomacy," the spokesman said.

Blair will contrast his approach with one he calls the "doctrine of benign activity," a doctrine he says sees setbacks in Iraq and Afghanistan as a reason why Saddam Hussein and the Taliban should have been left in place.

"The terrorists know that if they are to succeed either in Iraq or Afghanistan or indeed Lebanon or anywhere else wanting to go the democratic route, then the choice of a modern future for the Arab or Muslim world is dealt a potentially mortal blow," Blair will say.

"Likewise if they fail and those countries become democracies and make progress, then not merely is that a blow against their whole value system but it is the most effective message against their wretched propaganda about America, the West and the rest of the world."

Blair said nations must recognize extremism is deep rooted -- with 40 to 50 countries subject to regular terrorist attacks loosely linked to its ideology -- and that an interventionist stance was the precondition for future prosperity and stability.

6 comments:

Mark said...

I hold out NO HOPE for Blair. He's as lightweight as his name would suggest! Don't hold your breath! He understands as little about the threat of Islam as his partner the other side of the Big Pond. And that's about zilch!

Until Blair and Bush start to recognize what Islam is all about, we cannot win this war. Period! All we can do is tinker at the margins.

Christine said...

At this point, any action is better than inaction. But, I do hope Blair and Bush are somehow getting the education they need. That's all we can do at this point. Hope.

Anonymous said...

Mark you undestimate Blair.

This terrorism will not be defeated until its ideas, the poison that warps the minds of its adherents, are confronted, head-on, in their essence, at their core. By this I don't mean telling them terrorism is wrong. I mean telling them their attitude to America is absurd; their concept of governance pre-feudal; their positions on women and other faiths, reactionary and regressive; and then since only by Muslims can this be done: standing up for and supporting those within Islam who will tell them all of this but more, namely that the extremist view of Islam is not just theologically backward but completely contrary to the spirit and teaching of the Koran.

But in order to do this, we must reject the thought that somehow we are the authors of our own distress; that if only we altered this decision or that, the extremism would fade away. The only way to win is: to recognise this phenomenon is a global ideology; to see all areas, in which it operates, as linked; and to defeat it by values and ideas set in opposition to those of the terrorists.


http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page9224.asp

Mark said...

Jonz:

Get a grip on reality!

unaha-closp said...

Blairs Britain is selling $10 billion dollars worth of Typhoons to the wahabist dictatorship of Saudi Arabia as that regime stones the adulterous, executes gays and bans female drivers. He is actively intervening to defend a fundamentalist Islamist dictatorship that imprisons advocates for women, human rights and democracy.

All this speech proves is that Tony spins BS of the finest quality, whilst he continues to do nothing to oppose Islamist dictatorship.

Mark said...

Unaha-Closp:

Right on!