(20 Mar 2003)
1. SOUNDBITE: Tony Blair, British Prime Minister:
"On Tuesday night I gave the order for British forces to take part in military action in Iraq. Tonight British servicemen and women are engaged from air, land and sea. Their mission: to remove Saddam Hussein from power and disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction. I know this course of action has caused deep divisions of opinion in our country. But I know also that the British people will be united in sending our armed forces our thoughts and prayers. They are the finest in the world and their families and all of Britain can have great pride in them. The threat to Britain today is not that of my father's generation. War between the big powers is unlikely, Europe is at peace, the Cold War already a memory. But this new world faces a new threat of disorder and chaos, born either of brutal states like Iraq, armed with weapons of mass destruction, or extreme terrorist groups. Both, hate our way of life, our freedom, our democracy. My fear, deeply held and based in part on intelligence that I say, is that these threats come together and deliver catastrophe to our country and our world. These tyrannical states do not care for the sanctity of human life, the terrorists delight in destroying it. Some say if we act we become a target, the truth is all nations are targets. Bali was never in the frontline of action against terrorism, America did not attack Al Qaida, they attacked America. Britain has never been a nation to hide at the back, but even if we were it wouldn't avail us. Should terrorists obtain these weapons now being manufactured and traded around the world, the carnage they could inflict to our economies, our security, to world peace, would be beyond our most vivid imagination.....(continues)...."
STORYLINE:
Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair made an address to the nation on Thursday, explaining the reasons for his support of the US-led war on Saddam Hussein and urging the British people to get behind him.
Blair warned that, on the basis of intelligence, inaction concerning Iraq was not an option.
The British Prime Minister said that no nation was safe from terrorism, citing the bombing in Bali as evidence that any country could be considered a target for extremists.
The address was recorded in earlier in the day, Blair is in Brussels attending a meeting of EU leaders.
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