Tony Blair in Parliament

"What we have witnessed is, indeed, the consequence of Europe and the United States dividing from one another. ... There is a resentment of U.S. dominance," but the way to deal with terrorism is through partnership "not rivalry," Blair said. In the debate following Blair's speech, some Parliament members questioned the logic of what they felt was blindly following the U.S. in invading Iraq. "September 11 changed the psychology of America," Blair said. "It should have changed the psychology of the world."

We are forgetting what this is about. Smallpox falling into the hands of death and glory Muslim nutters. Don't think that when this comes, and there's still a chance that these WMD have already been passed to bin Laden's acolytes, that it was because of our attack on Iraq, it will be despite it.

Several years ago I saw a picture in Wired magazine, it was of a nuclear hole in New York. A photo composition. The article was about the strange things that could happen in the 21st century. I looked long and hard at this picture, the tiny comment below the picture talked of terrorism. Who could that be, I thought?

Who indeed.

It doesn't matter who. This stuff is coming. Be it an aerosol spray of VX agent on an underground train. One person contaminated with a dreadful disease. Terror is coming to a town near you. We as a world need to get this stuff out of circulation. Saddam's got loads. Get him and whoever's next on the list. Then we need to get the US's supply out of commission.

Even in the US there are nutters.

Full text of Blair's speech from the Guardian: "When the inspectors left in 1998, they left unaccounted for: 10,000 litres of anthrax; a far reaching VX nerve agent programme; up to 6,500 chemical munitions; at least 80 tonnes of mustard gas, possibly more than ten times that amount; unquantifiable amounts of sarin, botulinum toxin and a host of other biological poisons; an entire Scud missile programme."

"We are now seriously asked to accept that in the last few years, contrary to all history, contrary to all intelligence, he decided unilaterally to destroy the weapons. Such a claim is palpably absurd. "

And he goes on...

"Let me tell the house what I know. I know that there are some countries or groups within countries that are proliferating and trading in WMD, especially nuclear weapons technology."

"I know there are companies, individuals, some former scientists on nuclear weapons programmes, selling their equipment or expertise."

"I know there are several countries - mostly dictatorships with highly repressive regimes - desperately trying to acquire chemical weapons, biological weapons or, in particular, nuclear weapons capability. Some of these countries are now a short time away from having a serviceable nuclear weapon. This activity is not diminishing. It is increasing."

Good speech Tony.

I used to, still am, a Greenpeace activist, I went to Greenham Common (1985) with the rest of the 'No nukes in UK' brigade. I went on 'Stop the City' (1983) demos with the punks, anarchists and womens' movements, even a ClassWar 'Bash The Rich' (1985) march through the Rolls Royce houses of Kensington.

War -- I have a horror of, a hatred for, a desire to ensure that it would never happen. But I have known, right from October 2001 that Saddam would be the first, that he would never back down, that to rid the world of WMD so they could not fall into the hands of terrorist, war was coming.

817 Also posted to: Home page . At: 11:10:27 PM  . .
Permalink  Top  Search Google  Technorati
Other title(s) for this story: