Blair on Terrorism

I copied some responses from PM Blair to the questions of moron reporters. Enjoy!



Prime Minister, I wonder if you could clarify something that you said at your news conference earlier in relation to Iraq.

Prime Minister:

Oh please not.

Question:
You said that it was being used to recruit more people, more terrorists, and act as a motivator for them. Now I understand the argument of cause and effect and saying that Iraq didn't cause as you put it the London bombings, but is the effect that we are going to have more terrorists now, that we have got a recruiting sergeant out there?

Prime Minister:

You know you can go through all these arguments, and I went through them at the press conference. I think the real point is that people will use, they will use whatever issue is there, because you go back to September 11 and that was before Iraq and Afghanistan and they were using something else then, and if you got rid of all these issues they would use something else, and if you look at what they use in respect of Saudi Arabia, or Turkey, or Egypt or any of these other countries where terrorist acts happen, they will always use something different. I think most people understand that the roots of it go deeper and that is really what I was trying to say at the press conference earlier, and I think, and as I said this morning, and I probably said it more than enough, people can debate this issue forever, but I think most people recognise there is absolutely no excuse for what has been done.


…
(what he is referencing from earlier)

A question to both Prime Ministers. I wondered if in light of ... changes in position by the Foreign Secretary, and also whether you would agree with some sections of the British public that Iraq, and events after the war in Iraq, after the invasion of Iraq, have played a part in leading to a rise in terrorism or not?

Prime Minister:
Look Angus, as I have tried to say when people have asked me about this, there is absolutely no doubt that these terrorists will use Iraq as a reason, and before Iraq Afghanistan, and before Iraq and Afghanistan, around September 11, they used different justifications. But I think most people understand the roots of this are deeper, and we have also got to be careful of getting ourselves in the frame of mind where we see what they are doing in Iraq and Afghanistan now, which is basically the same terrorist ideology, killing innocent people, of having any sort of justification at all. And so I don't doubt that they will use these issues wherever it suits them to use them, but nothing can excuse or justify what they have done, and if you look at the roots of this they are far, far deeper. And there is something else which I find myself having to say at this point, if the concern was genuinely for people in Iraq or people in Afghanistan, or indeed people in Palestine, they would be helping these countries become proper democracies, instead of which the same terrorist ideology is killing people there in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Turkey, in Egypt, in any country they decide to make a target. And that is why I think at this moment what is important is that we stand absolutely firm against this ideology and say we are not going to yield one inch to it, but we are going to stand in solidarity with our own people and with others in defeating it.