Blair insists no turning back in Iraq

11.00am

LONDON - Prime Minister Tony Blair has launched a passionate defence of what he calls "the historic struggle in Iraq" and says he believes Britain and the United States will stay the course, despite rising violence.

In his first public comments since last week's upsurge in fighting, he insisted there remained "incredible possibilities of progress" in the country.

In an article written for Sunday's The Observer before he visits US President George W. Bush this week, Blair laid out the stakes.

"We are locked in a historic struggle in Iraq," he said. "Were we to fail, which we will not, it is more than 'the power of America' that would be defeated.

"The hope of freedom and religious tolerance in Iraq would be snuffed out."

Blair said if the occupying forces in Iraq failed "dictators would rejoice, fanatics and terrorists would be triumphant".

He listed signs of progress in the country and named several members of Iraq's new government whom he called brave, tolerant and forward-looking.

Why then, he asked rhetorically, did they or majority Shi'ites not speak up against firebrand rebel cleric Moqtada al-Sadr who has led a Shi'ite uprising in the centre and south of the country?

"They ask, as the terrorists do: have we the stomach to see it through?" he said.

"I believe we do. And the rest of the world must hope we do," he added.

Blair said that if Britain were to withdraw from Iraq, extremists would demand withdrawal from Afghanistan and then from the Middle East completely.

"The weaker we are, the more they will come after us," he said.

"There is a battle we have to fight, a struggle we have to win and it is happening now in Iraq."



- REUTERS

Herald Feature: Iraq