cerulean
03-18-2003, 12:58 PM
It's a long speech, but worth reading.
http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page3294.asp
A few quotes:
So: why does it matter so much?
Because the outcome of this issue will now determine more than the fate of the Iraqi regime and more than the future of the Iraqi people, for so long brutalised by Saddam. It will determine the way Britain and the world confront the central security threat of the 21st Century; the development of the UN; the relationship between Europe and the US; the relations within the EU and the way the US engages with the rest of the world.
It will determine the pattern of international politics for the next generation.
Blair then discusses Saddam's WMD program and the failed efforts to eradicate it.
When the inspectors left in 1998, they left unaccounted for:
* 10 thousand 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.
1441 is a very clear Resolution. It lays down a final opportunity for Saddam to disarm. It rehearses the fact that he has been, for years in material breach of 17 separate UN Resolutions.
There's much more, but that's a start.
http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page3294.asp
A few quotes:
So: why does it matter so much?
Because the outcome of this issue will now determine more than the fate of the Iraqi regime and more than the future of the Iraqi people, for so long brutalised by Saddam. It will determine the way Britain and the world confront the central security threat of the 21st Century; the development of the UN; the relationship between Europe and the US; the relations within the EU and the way the US engages with the rest of the world.
It will determine the pattern of international politics for the next generation.
Blair then discusses Saddam's WMD program and the failed efforts to eradicate it.
When the inspectors left in 1998, they left unaccounted for:
* 10 thousand 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.
1441 is a very clear Resolution. It lays down a final opportunity for Saddam to disarm. It rehearses the fact that he has been, for years in material breach of 17 separate UN Resolutions.
There's much more, but that's a start.