Tony Blair\'s Speech on July

Tony Blair's Speech

On July 17, 2003, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, Tony Blair, accepted the Congressional Gold Medal from the United States Congress for his support during the war with Iraq. During his acceptance speech, Blair made some statements that deserve further scrutiny.

In his speech, he referred to offering a tribute to the families of the men and women fighting in the Iraq war, stating that "through their sacrifice future generations can live in greater peace, prosperity and hope" (Blair, 2003). The assumption underlying that statement is that the Iraq war will result in greater peace, prosperity and hope. But as we know from history, some wars have resulted in such an outcome for at least some people of the world - for example World War II. Some terrible wars have not, however, as demonstrated by World War I, which solved little and set the stage for World War II.

Blair also noted that the world has shrunk in the past fifty years, and that events in one country can have effects in other countries (Blair, 2003). He identified the attack by Al-qaeda on the United States on September 11, 2001, as an attack on all countries and noted that America's allies are also vulnerable, something that was proven recently with Al-qaeda attacks on London's subway system.

However, many of Blair's constituents disagree with him. In February of 2002, 120 of his fellow Labour Party members voted against further support of the Iraq war (Wither, 2003). In addition, more than one million people had demonstrated against the war in London at about the same time. One poll taken in the United Kingdom suggested that people of that country believed the United States to be the greatest threat to world peace. This raises the possibility that the war with Iraq might be somewhat like World War I, a war that resulted in more warfare over time. Other countries agree with those citizens of Great Britain; Blair tried but failed to convince France and Germany to join in the war effort, and Nelson Mandela described Blair as the "Foreign Minister of the United States" (Wither, 2003).

Blair argued in his speech that the difficulties the world faces with the specter of terrorism is unprecedented, and that removing the Taliban and Saddam Hussein were not imperialistic acts but acts of liberation for the people of Afghanistan and Iraq (Windschuttle, 2003). While those people were liberated in that they are no longer ruled by the Taliban or Saddam Hussein, such forced liberation does remind some writers of the imperialistic actions of major powers in the 19th century (Windschuttle, 2003). But in addition, some of the imperialistic wars might tell us something about the nature of the terrorist foes we face. In 1898, 20,000 British troops faced 52,000 Sudanese Muslims. While the British were outmanned, they had superior firepower and gun ships on the river ready to face the Sudanese attack. The results of this battle tell us something about the soldiers who attacked the British army that day. The British lost 48 dead and 400 wounded. The Sudanese Muslim Dervishes had a casualty rate of 95%. Winston Churchiill, then 23 years old and a newspaper reporter, saw the Dervishes charge, chanting "There is one God and Muhammad is the Messenger of God." In spite of the fact that their army was decimated, the Sudanese kept coming and coming until there were no more fighters left to charge (Windschuttle, 2003).