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Excerpts from Prime Minister Tony Blair's speech to Labor Party conference

By Associated Press, 10/2/2001 12:53

Excerpts from speech by Prime Minister Tony Blair to the Labor Party annual conference Tuesday in Brighton, England:

Our way of life is a great deal stronger and will last a great deal longer than the actions of fanatics, small in number and now facing a unified world against them. People should have confidence.

This is a battle with only one outcome: our victory not theirs.

We know those responsible. In Afghanistan are scores of training camps for the export of terror. Chief amongst the sponsors and organizers is Osama Bin Laden. He is supported, shielded and given succor by the Taliban regime.

Two days before the 11 September attacks, (Ahmed Shah) Massood, the leader of the opposition northern alliance, was assassinated by two suicide bombers. Both were linked to bin Laden. Some may call that coincidence. I call it payment payment in the currency these people deal in: blood.

Be in no doubt: Bin Laden and his people organized this atrocity. The Taliban aid and abet him. He will not desist from further acts of terror. They will not stop helping him.

Whatever the dangers of the action we take, the dangers of inaction are far, far greater.

Look for a moment at the Taliban regime. It is undemocratic. That goes without saying.

There is no sport allowed, or television or photography. No art or culture is permitted. All other faiths, all other interpretations of Islam are ruthlessly suppressed. Those who practice their faith are imprisoned.

Women are treated in a way almost too revolting to be credible. First driven out of university; girls not allowed to go to school; no legal rights; unable to go out of doors without a man. Those that disobey are stoned.

There is now no contact permitted with Western agencies, even those delivering food. The people live in abject poverty.

It is a regime founded on fear and funded on the drug trade. The biggest drugs hoard in the world is in Afghanistan, controlled by the Taliban. Ninety percent of the heroin on British streets originates in Afghanistan. The arms the Taliban are buying today are paid for with the lives of young British people buying their drugs on British streets. That is another part of their regime that we should seek to destroy.

So what do we do?

Don't overreact some say. We aren't.

We haven't lashed out. No missiles on the first night just for effect.

Don't kill innocent people. We are not the ones who waged war on the innocent. We seek the guilty.

Look for a diplomatic solution. There is no diplomacy with bin Laden or the Taliban regime.

State an ultimatum and get their response. We stated the ultimatum; they haven't responded.

Understand the causes of terror. Yes, we should try, but let there be no moral ambiguity about this: nothing could ever justify the events of 11 September, and it is to turn justice on its head to pretend it could.

The action we take will be proportionate; targeted; we will do all we humanly can to avoid civilian casualties.

But understand what we are dealing with. Listen to the calls of those passengers on the planes. Think of the children on them, told they were going to die. Think of the cruelty beyond our comprehension as amongst the screams and the anguish of the innocent, those hijackers drove at full throttle planes laden with fuel into buildings where tens of thousands worked.

They have no moral inhibition on the slaughter of the innocent. If they could have murdered not 7,000 but 70,000 does anyone doubt they would have done so and rejoiced in it?

There is no compromise possible with such people, no meeting of minds, no point of understanding with such terror. Just a choice: defeat it or be defeated by it. And defeat it we must.

Any action taken will be against the terrorist network of bin Laden.

As for the Taliban, they can surrender the terrorists, or face the consequences. And again, in any action the aim will be to eliminate their military hardware, cut off their finances, disrupt their supplies, target their troops, not civilians. We will put a trap around the regime.

I say to the Taliban: surrender the terrorists; or surrender power. It's your choice.

-- Anonymous, October 02, 2001

Answers

I agree wholeheartedly with one vital exception: There should be no chance of the Taliban government surviving, after all they've done, even if they handed over bin Laden.

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

And I hope they nobble the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan, if only for being terminally creepy on a bright fall day.

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

I hope Tony and George get this show on the road soon. three weeks is a long time to wait for a bunch of nothing from those schmucks.

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001

I think quite a bit has happened already, even if it has been one of the longest three weeks I can remember.

-- Anonymous, October 03, 2001