Blair and terrorism

After both bomb attacks in London, I carefully watched Tony Blair's appearances, speeches and press conferences. I was very impressed by the calm, clear and straightforward message that he managed to convey.

He did not pull any punches and bravely expressed his opinions on politically sensitive issues, while graciously destroying some of the most obnoxious journalists with impeccable logic.

David Horovitz does a better job than I could ever do in analyzing Blair's statements in this editorial. Some excerpts:

Other people got a rude awakening, too, that day, Blair went on, adding bitterly: "Do you know what I think the problem is? That a lot of the world woke up for a short time [talking about 9/11] and then turned over and went back to sleep again."

He ridiculed the terrorists' purported concern, and that of the terrorists' sympathizers, for the well-being of the Iraqi people: "If it is concern for Iraq, why are they driving a car bomb into the middle of a group of children and killing them? he asked simply. "Why are they every day in Iraq trying to kill people whose only desire is for their country to become a democracy?

"Why are they trying to kill people in Afghanistan? Why are they trying, every time Israel and Palestine look as if they could come together in some sort of settlement, ... [to] wreck it? Why are they killing people in Turkey? What is their excuse there, or in Egypt, or in Saudi Arabia? They will always have a reason and I... say we shouldn't compromise with it... We shouldn't even allow them the vestige of an excuse for what they do."

"Now we all may have our criticisms of the State of Israel, on the policy of the Government of Israel from time to time," Blair allowed, "but the fact of the matter is we have got an international engagement that can allow us to have two states – Israel confident in its security, an independent, democratic, viable Palestinian state. Now the only way that we can get this done is to push that political process forward, and terrorism tries to stop us doing that."

Must read.

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