Blair Makes Surprise Iraq Visit
British Prime Minister In Baghdad; 3 More American Soldiers Killed
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Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair attends a press conference outside the British Residence in Cairo, Egypt, Saturday, Dec. 16, 2006. Blair arrived in Cairo Saturday for talks on Middle East peace process, as part of his multi-country tour of the region. (AP Photo /Eddie Keogh)
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Rear Admiral Brian Brannman presents a folded U.S. flag to late Navy medical corpsman Christopher A. Anderson's mother, Debra Anderson, as his brother Kyle Anderson and father, Rick Anderson, sit by her side during a funeral service for Anderson at Grace Evangelical Free Church in Longmont, Colo., Saturday, Dec. 16, 2006. Anderson, 24, died Dec. 4 in Anbar Province, Iraq. (AP Photo/Joshua Buck)
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Outgoing Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and Joint Chiefs Chairman, Gen. Peter Pace watch troops march during an Armed Forces Full Honor Review for Rumsfeld at the Pentagon, Friday, Dec. 15, 2006. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
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An Iraqi policeman searches a driver in central Baghdad, Iraq, on Friday, Dec. 15, 2006. The Iraqi government has imposed a ban on all vehicle traffic on Fridays, fearing yet more attacks on worshippers. (AP)
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Iraqi soccer fans cheer their team before the start of the Asian Games Soccer Men's gold medal final against Qatar in Doha, Qatar, on Friday, Dec. 15, 2006. Iraq lost the match, 1-0. (AP)
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Blair held talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in a visit designed to show support for fragile attempts to halt continuing bloodshed in the country.
Blair, who is traveling the Middle East to push for Israeli-Palestinian peace, was whisked into the heavily fortified Green Zone from the airport on a military helicopter. He had flown to Baghdad by a Royal Air Force transport plane from Cairo. It was his sixth visit to the country since the U.S.-led 2003 invasion.
During a joint news conference with al-Maliki, the British prime minister stressed the importance of "all countries in the region" supporting the fledgling Iraqi government, and insisted Iraq had made progress since the toppling of Saddam Hussein.
"Our task — ours, the Americans, the whole of the coalition, the international community and the Iraqis themselves — is to make sure that the forces of terrorism don't defeat the will of the people to have a democracy," Blair said at a news conference with al-Maliki.
Blair rejected a suggestion that the sectarian bloodshed being experienced across the country was created by the U.S. and British decision to invade, saying the challenge in Iraq was part of a wide struggle against those opposed to democracy.
"There is innocent blood being spilt, but it's not being spilt by the Iraqi government democratically elected or by those supporting them. It's being spilt by the very forces that worldwide are trying to prevent moderation, prevent modernization, prevent people expressing their will through democracy rather than through violence," he said.
Late on Sunday afternoon, Blair flew to Basra to visit some of the troops stationed there.
In a cavernous hangar and before a backdrop of a Lynx helicopter, Blair told some of the 7,000 British troops serving in southern Iraq that they were fighting on behalf of "people of tolerance and moderation" around the world.
"This is real conflict, real battle, and it is a different kind of enemy — not fighting a state, but fighting a set of ideas and ideologies, a group of extremists who share the same perspectives," Blair said. "What we need to try to do is build an alliance of moderate people against the extreme."
During what has become an annual holiday-season visit to the region, Blair told troops that extremism was causing havoc in neighborhoods from Basra to London — a reference to the July 2005 transit bombings in the British capital.
"The crazy thing about today's world is it actually comes back to our own streets," he said. "All over the world the same struggle is going on, and if we don't stand up and fight for the people of tolerance and moderation who want to live together, whatever their fate, then the people of hatred and sectarianism will triumph."
Battling extremism has been the theme of Blair's trip to the region, which began in Turkey, moved to Egypt, and is to continue in Israel, the Palestinian Territories, and the United Arab Emirates.
"Our country and other countries like it are having to rediscover what it means to fight for what you believe in," Blair told the soldiers.
Britain has the largest commitment of troops in Iraq of any country after the United States. More than 120 British personnel have died in the country since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 that ousted Saddam Hussein.
British officials said several thousand troops are expected to be withdrawn from Iraq next year.
Blair gave no new details, however, of when troops might leave Iraq.
Meanwhile, in other developments:
The soldiers were conducting a patrol to clear a route so that another unit could move through the area on Saturday, the military said in a statement. A bomb exploded near one of their vehicles, the statement said.
The toll raised to 57 the number of Americans killed in Iraq in December. At least 2,945 members of the U.S. military have died since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
A Red Crescent official said the gunmen left women behind at the office in Andalus square. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of safety concerns.
The Red Crescent, which is part of the international Red Cross movement, has around 1,000 staff and some 200,000 volunteers in Iraq. It works closely with the International Committee of the Red Cross, which visits detainees and tries to provide food, water and medicine to Iraqis.
Mazin Abdellaha, the secretary-general of the Iraq Red Crescent, appealed to the kidnappers to release the captives.
"They represent a humanitarian agency that works for the general good, and this agency helps all people regardless of their sect or ethnicity," Abdellaha said.
At least half a dozen mass kidnappings have been carried out in the Iraqi capital this year, possibly by armed groups linked to the sectarian conflict between Sunnis and Shiites.
But key players on both ends of the Sunni-Shiite divide skipped Saturday's meeting, raising doubt that the conference will succeed in healing the country's wounds.
©MMVI, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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See all 100 Comments..... Don't tell that to the thousands of Iraqis that have been murdered by the insurgents.....
This will not come as a surprise to anyone who has bothered to follow the situation in Iraq.
That is the cold, hard, truth of the matter. The iraqis have every right to defend themselves against the brutal and illegal invasion of their country.
WHAT???
Re: "The insurgents, they are Iraqis, a lot of them are Iraqis, and they respect the Iraqis. And they respect (the Red Crescent's) identity, which is neutrality."
lestb35: WHAT???
-----------------------------
He said, "The insurgents, they are Iraqis, a lot of them are Iraqis, and they respect the Iraqis. And they respect (the Red Crescent's) identity, which is neutrality."
Do you have a reading comprehension disability?
WHAT??? - lestb35
HA HA thats the dumbest comment ive heard on the war yet. I agree with lestb35, If they respect each other so much why the He!! are they blowing there neighbors up? they aren't even getting us they just kill themselves....yeah they have MAD respect for each other the keyword is MAD.
Re: "If they respect each other so much why the He!! are they blowing there neighbors up?"
The destabilizing of the region by U.S. military failures probably has a lot to do with it, along with the U.S. failure to meet its obligation of providing security.
Many of the Iraqis that are being killed are those who have chosen to collaborate with the brutal and illegal U.S. invasion.
U.S. backed death-squads have undoubtedly played a part, and black-OPS terrorists like the British SAS troops who were caught with wigs, Arab clothing, and bomb-making materials, have undoubtedly been a factor as well.
Blaming the Iraqis for the U.S. created debacle there is truly a cowardly and contemptuous position.
Re: "They (Iraqis) are not worth one drop of American (blood)."
Spoken like a truly racist 'sour-grapes' disgrace.
thinking that we're so smart = well look where that got us.
Then go and walk the roads of Iraq. Go ahead, live on the wild side. Seen it all before in Nam.
I agree that we should withdraw immediately. We had no business invading in the first place.
I am just sensitive to the current effort to blame the Iraqi people for the U.S. created disaster there.
If this is not what you were stating, and I overreacted to your comment, then I apologize.
Viet Nam was antoher huge U.S. mistake. It appears that we have learned nothing from it.
Posted by FeelFree1 at 02:49 PM : Dec 15, 2006
Yea, well how long are they going to continue killing each other until someone steps up and leads them out of war. The problem with the Iraqis is there are no strong leaders. You can blame the US as long as you want but at some point the Iraqis are going to have to step up.
Re: "You can blame the US as long as you want but at some point the Iraqis are going to have to step up."
The Iraqis will surely "step up" when the illegal invaders are finally expelled from their country, and they have an opportunity to elect legitimate leaders to replace their current puppet officials.
You can deny U.S. responsibility all you like, but is painfully obvious who is truly responsible for the current disaster and misery in Iraq.
IT'S REALLY A SHAME. THE INNOCENT IRAQI'S ARE CAUGHT IN THE TANGLE OF WAR. WHAT REALLY ANNOYS ME AS AN ITALO AMERICAN, IS THAT OUR ESTEEMED STUPID AND STUBBORN PRESIDENT HAS NOT ADMITTED TO HIS ERRORS IN FORMERLY TRUSTING HIS STAFF WHO ADVISED HIM TO INVADE IRAQ....SADDAM WHO WAS ABOUT A DANGEROUS THREAT AS MY MINIATURE POODLE IS. HE NOR THE FORMER PRESIDENT CLINTON EVER TOOK THE TIME OUT TO PURSUE THE EVIL SON OF SATAN WHO MASTERMINDED THE KILLING OF 3000 INNOCENT AMERICANS. MAY CLINTON AND BUSH BURN IN HELL, IF THERE IS ONE, FOR THEIR SINS OF ARROGANCE AND INFIDELITY AND THE DEATHS OF OUR YOUNG BOYS WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES TO PROTECT US.
There wasn't the level of ethnic hatred that we are seeing today before U.S.invaded.Civil war,hundreds of thousands killed, 1.6 million Iraqis have fled country. Was Iraq better of with Saddam? I don't think serious people are even debating this anymore.
What really scares me is I'm afraid that they may bring back to old "domino" theory but apply it to the middle east. I believe that is the mental state of our leadership. The Iraqi people are the victims as are our fighting men and women of the lie that got us involved, but no easy out or answer.
Re: "HEY FEELFREE1, YOU ARE AN IDIOT.."
Thanks for the free I.Q. assessment, but could you be a bit more specific?
Most experts agree that if we pull out there will be worse carnage.
Re: " The Iraqi people are the victims as are our fighting men and women of the lie that got us involved, but no easy out or answer."
Agreed.
Re: "What really scares me is I'm afraid that they may bring back to old "domino" theory but apply it to the middle east."
In my opinion, this has been the plan all along, as is decribed in the fascistic manifesto of the Project for a New American Century dunderheads, in their "Rebuilding America's Defenses" plan for global domination.
Re: "Most experts agree that if we pull out there will be worse carnage."
Sounds like you are relying on the same "expert" fools that stampeded us into this disgraceful mess.
I believe that you are a subversive to the USA(a scent of alcaida?) and if we were at war, officially, you would be marked as a traitor to the USA. By the way what country are you from amigo with all your *** ravings ???? If you have the balls to let us know please do.
I am a U.S. Army veteran and a U.S. citizen- born and raised. How about you?
We retain the RIGHT of freedom of speech in this country, and I plan to exercise that right freely.
Why do you hate our freedoms?
'the U.S. failure to meet its obligation of providing security'
The U.S. is under no 'obligation' to provide security. Having said that,the U.S. has made a good-faith effort to stop the violence in Iraq. The U.S. has spent 300 billion dollars to provide security. 300 billion dollars isn't good enough for you?
'That is the cold, hard, truth of the matter. The iraqis have every right to defend themselves against the brutal and illegal invasion of their country'
Since when has there ever been a 'legal' invasion of any country?
The cold hard truth is that the Middle East has been waging a Terror War against the United States for the past 25 years. Which gives the United States the right to wage war on the Middle East.
'The war on terror, today being fought here in our homeland, and
around the world, must be won. Five years after 9/11, America is safer
and much more alert to the dangers that lurk in the darker corners of
our world.
Those dangers yet exist in Afghanistan and Iraq and Iran and Syria,
Lebanon and elsewhere. They call themselves al Qaeda and Hamas and
Hezbollah and many other names.
Mr. Speaker, their differences of names and nationality neither erase
nor even obscure the menacing ideology that binds them together as a
single indistinguishable enemy of freedom and justice and peace.
This ideology of evil seeks not simply to dominate, but to destroy
the will of all mankind, to control at the tip of a sword our very
thought, word and deed. Their ultimatum is simple: submit or die' - Congressman Denny Hastert,9/13/06
Re: "The U.S. is under no 'obligation' to provide security."
Your assertion is false. Not only is this a requiremnet under international humanitarian law, of which the U.S. is signatory, but according to the U.S. Army%u2019s Field Manual 27-10: %u201CThe authority of the legitimate power having in fact passed into the hands of the occupant, the latter shall take all the measures in his power to restore, and ensure, as far as possible, public order and safety%u2026.%u201D
Failure of our mis-leaders and our military members to understand this fundamental obligation is a large part of why our defeat in Iraq is such a resounding disgrace, and why this criminal mis-adventure never had any real chance of success.
Re: "Since when has there ever been a 'legal' invasion of any country?"
There are several examples. For instance, during WWII, our Congress made a formal declaration of war, as is reqired by our own Constitution, and we were clearly defending ourselves against a belligerant aggressor.
Re: "The cold hard truth is that the Middle East has been waging a Terror War against the United States for the past 25 years. Which gives the United States the right to wage war on the Middle East."
Your assertion is unfounded and has zero basis in the rule of law. If we abandon our own Constitution at the behest of a handful of greedy maniacs, and their fearful, hate-filled supporters, just exactly what is it that we are fighting for?
Re: "The war on terror, today being fought here in our homeland, and around the world, must be won."
The idiotic "war on terror" is an abject failure, and a series of humiliating military and moral defeats for the U.S. What's more, "terror" is not an enemy. It is an emotion. Anyone foolish enough to wage a "war" against an emotion, is certainly not competent to be telling others what we "must do".
Re: "300 billion dollars isn't good enough for you?"
Wasting $300+ billion, is not a good substitute for sane foreign policy or for meeting our legal requirements as an occupying power. Whining because you bit off more than you can chew does not relieve you of this legal and moral obligation.
Re: "This ideology of evil seeks not simply to dominate, but to destroy the will of all mankind, to control at the tip of a sword our very thought, word and deed."
You have described, perfectly, the failed manifesto of the "Project for a New American Century" traitors, like Kristol, Kagan, Perle, Wolfowitz, Feith, Wurmser, and Rumsfeld.
Fortunately for us, and for the planet, they are headed for the sewer of history.
So what next - annhilate them all? I mean since you're so good and there so evil, what's the problem with that?
Well said.
Tank611:
Like it or not, the US has certain obligations, particularly when it has troops in a foreign country.
And like it or not, Iraq is in the current state it's in because of GW Bush - and he needs to fix the problems he's created otherwise, Iraq WILL become a bigger threat to world security.
Much like the Iraqi that are often used as garrisons for religious based militias, looks can be deceiving.
Re: "The Troops in Iraq initially gave the Red Crescent the same humanitarian benefit of doubt as they do all international humanitarian organizations."
It appears that you are a vitim of pro-war poopaganda. U.S. troops have been attacking hospitals and ambulances since the beginning of the illegal invasion of Iraq. This is one of the more serious categories of war crimes committed by some of our troops, in my opinion.
In fact, trigger-happy U.S. military idiots even shot up an ambulance containing PFC Jessica Lynch, when Iraqi medical officials were attempting to return her to U.S. custody.
You are in need of some advanced deprogramming.
Can you or any of your your fellow fascistic apologists take responsibility for any of your many, stinking failures?
Islamic terrorists have been attacking the US and its allies since the Carter administration. The US and Iraq have been at conflict since Saddam invaded Kuwait.
Put the blame where it belongs: the Mideastern nations (i.e. Iraq, Syria, and Sandia Arabia)whose governments and/or population that provides sanctuary, monetary and/or direct military support for terrorist world wide; and most notably in Iraq.
It takes a large amount of money to arm, feed and support religious militias that number in the tens of thousands. And that large sum of cash is oil fed, fer sure.
Who would Jesus blame?
This quote make me laugh over and over again. Isn't the biggest problem in Iraq the Iraq's killing other Iraqis?
Not over government mind you, but over a difference of an interpretation of faith.
Re: "Isn't the biggest problem in Iraq the Iraq's killing other Iraqis?"
Not hardly. The biggest problem in Iraq is the brutal and illegal U.S. war of aggression against that country, resulting in hundreds of thousands of violent Iraqi deaths, and millions more Iraqis humiliated, wrongfully imprisoned, tortured and sexually abused at the hands of U.S. agents.
That, along with the U.S. sponsored death-squads in Iraq, are probably two of the biggest problems, in my opinion.
Your level of brainwashing is startling. Reach out and find help!
The current buzz word in the administration for Iraq, is "new way forward"... it's almost as if saying it often enough will actually make it so...
So what will this "new way" look involve... well according to the adminsistration... it won't involve negotiations with Syria or Iran nor will it involve phased or immediate US troop withdrawal or tie US support for Iraq to progress milestones...
In simple terms it will involve nothing "new" nor progressive...
There is a simple reason why GWB cannot change course on Iraq... this is because to do so would be to admit failure and we have already seen that this President is incapable of doing that...
He will not talk to Syria or Iran because that would be to admit failure, he will not announce a phased or full troop withdrawl because that would be to admit failure, neither will he set milestones for the Iraqi government because, if they are not me, that would also be to admit failure..
What we are witnessing is the tragic and needless waste of our nations resources... not just the $300bn that has been sunk into Iraq... but more importantly... the 3,000 American lives that have been thrown away... all because the President cannot bring himself to admit that he has got it wrong....
"New way forward"?.... don't hold your breath....
Anyone notice how he waited until Congress adjourned for the year to develop his "new way forward?"
Same book -- different title. What a joke.
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