Blair Tells Congress: History Will Forgive

Despite mounting doubts over intelligence concerning Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction and the justifications for going to war, the joint press conference at the White House given by British Prime Minister Tony Blair and United States President George W. Bush was never going to include the statement, “We got it wrong. Sorry.”

Meeting in Washington on Thursday against a backdrop of international concern, including growing doubts over whether or not the Iraqi regime had attempted to buy uranium from Niger, both leaders maintained their resolve over the Iraq war throughout the tepid examination.

“The regime of Saddam Hussein was a grave and growing threat. Given Saddam's history of violence and aggression, it would have been reckless to place our trust in his sanity or his restraint,” said Bush. He added that, by going to war, the United States and Britain ended the threat of Saddam's weapons of mass destruction.

The prime minister echoed the president’s sentiments by repeating a coalition coda that many in the room had witnessed on previous occasions: “Let us be clear - we have been dealing with a situation in which the threat was very clear, and the person, Saddam Hussein, wielding that threat was someone of total brutality and ruthlessness.”

Amendment to the script

It was only when Blair arrived later that evening to give a historic address to the U.S. Congress that the British premier strayed from the script and briefly offered the world something new.

In a speech which was described by a government aide as one the prime minister had “sweated blood” over, Blair massaged the assembled great and good of American politics by describing the U.S. as a “light of liberty” and apologizing for the British burning of Congress' library in 1812. Congress duly responded in kind by delivering 19 standing ovations during the 32 minute address, prompting the prime minister to bashfully admit it was more than he was used to at home.

But amongst the few moments where the prime minister was actually allowed to speak, he made a series of comments that must have made some of those seated eager to stand up again, such was the uncomfortable nature of his remarks in the light of the current controversy over the coalition’s reasons for war.

A softer British stance?

In what appeared to be a significant softening of Downing Street's stance on Iraq's banned weapons, Blair admitted to the assembled members of Congress that he may eventually be proved wrong and that history would “forgive” him even if no weapons of mass destruction are uncovered in Iraq.

“Can we be sure that terrorism and weapons of mass destruction will join together? Let us say one thing. If we are wrong we will have destroyed a threat that, at its least, is responsible for inhuman carnage and suffering. That is something I am confident history will forgive.” This rare glimpse of fallibility comes just days after Blair declared that Britain and the U.S. may only uncover a weapons program, rather than actual weapons themselves.

But before officials could slide away to prepare statements explaining why this was not the admission doubters had been waiting for, Blair saved them the trouble, adding with insistence that he still believed he would be proved right. "If our critics are wrong, if we are right as I believe with every fiber of instinct and conviction I have that we are, and we do not act, then we will have hesitated in the face of this menace when we should have given leadership; that is something history will not forgive."

Transatlantic two-way relationship

Moving away from the tender, yet far from healed wound of Iraq, Blair turned his Congress address towards the transatlantic relationship. In an uncompromising message to both Europe and the United States, Blair described the bond between the two powers as a “two-way relationship in which both sides must be prepared to give ground.”

He declared: “To be a serious partner, Europe must take on and defeat the anti-Americanism that sometimes passes for its political discourse. What America must do is to show that this is a partnership built on persuasion, not command.”

Blair saved his most barbed message, although one barely disguised, for Jacques Chirac, insinuating that the French president wanted to turn Europe into a rival power to the U.S. “There is no more dangerous theory in international politics today than that we need to balance the power of America with other competitive powers, different poles around which nations gather.”

His speech was lauded by President Bush as “fabulous” saying in the press conference that followed, “The prime minister once again showed the qualities that have marked his entire career. Tony Blair is a leader of conviction, of passion and of moral clarity. He is a true friend of the American people.”