IRAQ: Blair Emerges as the Hero of Baghdad

By Sanjay Suri Reprint | | Print |

Sanjay Suri

LONDON, Apr 11 2003 (IPS) - It was U.S. troops who entered Baghdad, but it is British Prime Minister Tony Blair who is being seen as the sober force behind the victory of the coalition troops over the Iraqi military.

Blair was vilified right up to the day the U.S. troops entered Baghdad over war casualties and earlier over the very act of going to war. The failure of his move to gain a second United Nations Resolution to back the attack was seen as another front of the Blair failure.

But Blair won unusual acknowledgement from Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan-Smith. The opposition leader attacked the Blair government over its budget announced Wednesday but declared that Blair stands vindicated. "This is one of the most brilliantly executed campaigns of recent history," Duncan-Smith said.

The Conservatives were unanimous in supporting the war. In Blair’s Labour Party 140 MPs of a total of 410 opposed the war. Parliamentary under-secretary and former foreign secretary Robin Cook resigned in protest against the war, along with two other ministers.

Blair seems now to have overcome stronger opposition at home than the British faced from Iraqi forces. If the resolution in support of the war was carried convincingly, it was due substantially to Conservative backing.

In a rare move, Blair emerged Wednesday from his office at 10 Downing Street to join the staff in watching television pictures of people celebrating the collapse of the Saddam regime on the streets of Baghdad and other towns.

Blair said he was "delighted" with what he was seeing, and a spokesman said that Blair had talked of the "scales of fear falling from the eyes of the people of Iraq."

The spokesman said: "We are all, as you would expect, watching these images, along with the rest of the country, and are delighted at what we are seeing in the reaction of people on the ground. It shows what the ordinary people thought of Saddam and just how much of a burden his rule has placed on them. A substantial part of the country we can say with certainty is free of violence."

Blair has placed his credibility again on the line by declaring that weapons of mass destruction will be found in Iraq. He told the House of Commons that he has "no doubt at all" that the weapons exist.

"A six-month campaign of concealment" had prevented UN inspectors and coalition forces from making any significant discoveries. Blair told the House of Commons. "It is not surprising we have not found these. We need the evidence of the experts and scientists but we are convinced that we will get it."

But Blair warned: "This conflict is not over yet. There are still some very difficult things to do. As we speak, there is still intense resistance, not broad spread amongst the Iraqi people, but certainly still amongst those parts of Saddam’s regime that want to cling onto power. So it’s not over yet."

Blair is reported to have refused an invitation to attend a meeting in St Petersburg this weekend with Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is also due to attend the meeting.

Blair has said he will support a significant role for the UN in the rebuilding of Iraq. But evidently the rift the war opened up between Britain and the U.S. on one side and France, Germany and Russia on the other will take some time to heal.

Officials say that relations now between Britain, Spain and Italy could be strengthened as a result of the outcome of the war on the Iraqi regime.

Strong support from these countries is also expected for the East and Central European countries due to join the European Union next year. These countries had strongly backed the war on Iraq.

Blair’s opponents within his party seem a beleaguered lot. Asked who would offer surrender to the U.S. and British forces, Blair said the collapse of the regime had made that possibility difficult. A backbencher said the surrender on behalf of Iraq could be offered by George Galloway, MP, who had led the opposition to Blair and had gone so far as to call Blair and Bush "wolves".

Many MPs now want Galloway expelled from the party, a move Galloway says he is determined to resist.

"I suppose I have toughened," Blair said in an interview to Saga magazine.