Blair: I will not flinch from historic Iraq fight

[cal04]

Tony Blair put his political reputation on the line over Iraq yesterday, saying that the Government would not flinch from its 'historic struggle' despite the efforts of 'insurgents and terrorists'.
In the Prime Minister's first public comments since the eruption of vicious fighting across Iraq which has seen 460 Iraqi civilians and 46 US troops killed, Blair said that if the coalition forces failed in Iraq 'dictators would rejoice, fanatics and terrorists would be triumphant'.

Writing exclusively for The Observer before a make-or-break summit with president George Bush this week, he gave full backing to American tactics in Iraq and said a 'significant part' of Western opinion against the war was sitting back, 'half hoping we fail'.

He said the country was not descending into civil war and dismissed those attacking coalition forces as former supporters of Saddam Hussein, al-Qaeda-backed terrorist groups or followers of the radical cleric, Muqtada-al-Sadr. He also argued that much of Iraq was unaffected and that many Iraqis rejected the uprising, which has seen coalition forces lose control of a number of cities.

His strongly worded attack comes after another 24 hours of high tension in the country. Shia insurgents in Falluja said they now had taken 30 civilian hostages including Israelis, Americans and Spaniards. They threatened to behead them unless the coalition forces pulled out.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1189781,00.html

[punpirate]

1. It seems that about the only...

... thing Bush and Blair know how to do is to make "strongly worded" attacks.

I'd love to see Blair not "flinch" when he's in downtown Fallujah in the same gear as one of his soldiers.

Mighty strong talk for someone vacationing in Bermuda....

[Classical_Liberal]

2. Why don't fuckups ever lose their jobs anymore?

?