The New York Times
2 More Resign in Britain, but Cabinet Aide Stays On
By WARREN HOGE
LONDON, March 18 — Shaken by the protest resignations of three government ministers and facing a potential mutiny of Labor Party members in Parliament, Prime Minister Tony Blair today pledged his political future on Britain's joining the United States in forcibly disarming Saddam Hussein.
"Tell our allies that at the very moment of action, at the very moment when they need our determination that Britain faltered ?" he asked the Commons, his voice rising and his finger stabbing at the air.
"I will not be party to such a course."
Mr. Blair was rising to the greatest challenge of his six years in office in support of a motion backing "all means necessary" to disarm Iraq, and he roused the House to rare applause with as passionate a speech as he has ever delivered since becoming prime minister.
He recognized the high stakes at its outset, saying, "Here we are: the government with its most serious test, its majority at risk, the first cabinet resignation over an issue of policy, the main parties divided."
President Bush's staunchest ally, Mr. Blair has deployed 45,000 British troops to the Gulf and has worked to bring skeptical world opinion around to his and Mr. Bush's hardline stance.
But a majority of the British public remains unpersuaded of the need to got to war now, and a large number of Mr. Blair's fellow Laborites in Parliament share the public's misgivings. Mr. Blair said he understood and respected their objections, but he defied them to consider the consequences of backing down with the country on the brink of war.
"To retreat now, I believe, would put at hazard all that we hold dearest," he said, "turn the United Nations into a talking shop, stifle the first steps of progress in the Middle East, leave the Iraqi people to the mercy of events on which we would have relinquished all power to influence for the better."
He said, "Back away from this confrontation now and future conflicts will be infinitely worse and more devastating in their effects."
The day began inauspiciously for Mr. Blair when two junior ministers, John Denham from the Home office and Lord Hunt from the health ministry, resigned from the government. They joined Robin Cook, the leader of the Commons, who quit the cabinet on Monday and gave a stirring speech of his own explaining his reasons in the House last night.
However, Clare Short, the most outspoken member of the cabinet, decided to stay on despite nine days ago having called the prime minister's policy "reckless" and vowing she would quit her post as secretary of international development if Britain went to war without United Nations sanction.
"I remain very critical of the way the Iraq crisis has been handled," Ms. Short said but then took her place near Mr. Blair on the government front benches as the day-long debate began. Officials said that Mr. Blair had kept her on board by promising her a role in the humanitarian rebuilding of post-war Iraq.
Rebel Laborites were hoping that more than 150 of the party's 410 members of Parliament would vote against the government when the tally was taken late tonight. When Mr. Blair sought support for his tough line on Iraq in the House three weeks ago, 122 Labor members deserted him and some who backed him or abstained then said they would withdraw that support if he proceeded into combat without the authority of a new Security Council resolution.
That eventuality emerged on Monday when Britain, Spain, and the United States were forced to withdraw their joint resolution before the Security Council that sought authorization for military action against Iraq but failed to gain the necessary backing. France said it would veto any resolution with an ultimatum for force, and Mr. Blair and his officials, playing on Britons' traditional rivalry with their cross-Channel neighbor, have repeatedly in recent days blamed the diplomatic failure on Paris.
The decision to go forward without such international backing was the cause of the three resignations and was the central element of most of the objections raised against the policy on the floor today. Downing Street was hoping that Mr. Blair's strong effort to get United Nations approval would dissuade dissidents from voting against the government.
Two new polls today showed more Britons starting to line up behind war with Iraq, though those against military action still outnumbered those in favor. Demonstrators with banners, posters and megaphones kept up a steady protest on the sidewalks outside the Parliament buildings.
Mr. Blair was assured of parliamentary approval because of the support of the Conservative Party, but his authority in British political life would be called into serious question if he and his government had to depend upon the opposition Tories.
Even the anti-war speakers, however, went out of their way to praise Mr. Blair for his campaign to secure United Nations support, and the newly resigned Mr. Cook stressed that today's debate was in no way a confidence vote on the prime minister.
Mr. Blair said today's issue had dimensions broader than just disarming Iraq. It involved, he argued, the central security threat of the 21st century, the future of the United Nations, relations between Europe and the United States, unity within the European Union and the way the United States engages with the rest of the world.
"If our plea is for America to work with others, to be good as well as powerful allies, will our retreat make them multilateralist ?" he asked. "Will it not instead be the biggest impulse to unilateralism there could ever be ?" |
