History will forgive us, says Blair

In a passionate speech to the Congress on Thursday, British PM Tony Blair said history will forgive the US-led coalition even if weapons of ...

In a passionate speech to the Congress on Thursday, British PM Tony Blair said history will forgive the US-led coalition even if weapons of mass destruction are not found in Iraq because of the broader good of fighting tyranny and preventing future terrorism.

At a subsequent joint news conference, Blair and US President Bush stood by their assertions that the deadly weapons will be found, but they avoided answers to the questions each faces at home. Blair’s visit was meant to honour America’s staunchest ally in the war, and he was accorded the rare honour of being invited to address a joint session

of Congress.

The British leader was also awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. But shortly after receiving a hero’s welcome on Capitol Hill, Blair joined Bush for a tense exchange with reporters at the White House about pre-war intelligence and the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

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Bush said post-war chaos, a decade of practice in hiding weaponry programmes, and only recent cooperation by high-level officials from Saddam Hussein’s regime, explained why the arms had not been uncovered more than two months after the fall of Baghdad. The two leaders’ answers did little, however, to solve mounting questions over conflicting intelligence assessments about whether Saddam attempted to buy uranium from Africa, a key indication of whether Iraq was trying to reconstitute its nuclear programme. Blair said he stands by intelligence assessments concluding that Baghdad did try to make the purchase. ‘‘The British intelligence that we have we believe is genuine,’’ he said.

For his part, Bush dodged a question on whether he would accept responsibility for a sentence in his speech accusing Iraq of trying to acquire uranium.

Speaking to a packed House chamber, Blair strongly defended the decision to topple Saddam and said he believes ‘‘with every fibre of instinct and conviction’’ that the US and Britain have to show leadership to ensure that terrorists do not get their hands on the world’s deadliest weapons.

‘‘If we are wrong, we will have destroyed a threat that, at least, is responsible for inhuman carnage and suffering. That is something I am confident history will forgive. But if our critics are wrong, if we are right — and we do not act, then we will have hesitated in the face of this menace when we should have given leadership,’’ Blair said. ‘‘That is something history will not forgive,’’ he said, triggering a sustained standing ovation from Congress.

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Acknowledging political problems at home, where he has been under fire both from the Opposition and within his party over Iraq, Blair noted that the standing ovation that greeted him was ‘‘more than I deserve and more than I’m used to, quite frankly.’’

In an eloquent address, laced with both humour and American history, Blair heralded the role the US has played in fighting the war on terrorism. ‘‘There never has been a time when the power of US was so necessary or so misunderstood,’’ he said. (LAT-WP)