Bliars speech to RUSI

Only caught last few minutes...

did he really say that he "considers some claims about conditions to be exaggerated" ??

 

He said something like, "However exaggerated or wrong they may be..." reffering to the reports on the condition od Forces accomodation.

Cheers Easy!

 

Just watched the whole thing...an exercise in the main of trying to justify his actions vis-a-vis all things military. Talking to RUSI as tho' they were a bunch of 12 year old in a history lesson. The main thrust could have been said in a few words.....eg. we will talk softly and carry a big stick.

 

When a politician gives a speech he is not just talking to his immediate audience, but to the country (and in some cases the world) at large.

Did You know that?

 

On Sky News website now...

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13561490,00.html

 

Here's how the 'Telegraph' has reported it...
Blair: Terrorists cannot be beaten without force
By Emma Henry and agencies
Last Updated: 12:40pm GMT 12/01/2007

Tony Blair has warned that global terrorism cannot be defeated without military force.

In a major defence policy speech, the Prime Minister has told an audience in Plymouth that Britain must maintain both its military and its diplomatic roles in the world.

He admitted that public opinion is divided over Britain's military campaigns and "unnerved by the absence of victory" in its traditional form.

But in a speech aboard HMS Albion he urged politicians against allowing doing the right thing to become doing the easy thing.

He said: "Terrorism cannot be defeated by military means alone, but it can't be defeated without it."

Mr Blair said that without Britain's "hard" military presence, its "soft" diplomatic initiatives in the Middle East and Africa and on climate change would be "inexorably" undermined.

"For me, the setting aside of 'hard' power leads inexorably to the weakening of 'soft' power."

He added: "Poverty in Africa can't be solved simply by the presence of aid. It needs the absence of conflict.

"Failed states threaten us as well as their own people.

"Terrorism destroys progress. Terrorism cannot be defeated by military means alone. But it cannot be defeated without it."

The Prime Minister presented a stark analysis of the challenges he faces in keeping the military and the public onside.

"For their part, the military and especially their families will feel they are being asked to take on a pact of a different magnitude and nature," he said.

"Any grievances, any issues to do with military life, will be more raw, more sensitive, more prone to cause resentment.

"Public opinion will be divided, feel that the cost is too great, the campaign too long and be unnerved by the absence of victory in the normal way they would recognise.

"They will be constantly bombarded by the propaganda of the enemy, often quite sympathetically treated by their own media, to the effect that it's all really our - that is the West's - fault."

He said that has an impact on the armed forces, who want people back home to acknowledge their courage in what they are undertaking.

Mr Blair said there is a risk that politicians decide it's "all too difficult" and that "doing the right thing slips almost unconsciously into doing the easy thing".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/01/12/nblair112.xml

It seems we are all being duped by the media..

 

Sven, I don't know a lot but one thing I do know is that you are the most annoying tw@t on this site and if given the opportunity to punch you lights out I would not hesitate. endex

 

"The Government had made a "big effort" to equip the Navy for what was asked of it and a "massive" ship-building programme was to come, he said."

I'm sure I read on the front pages of the Daily Torygraph the other day that he was going the mothball half the fleet. Left hand/right hand anybody?

 

Yes.

You don't care to think of anyone speaking against the things You believe, so You smack them one.

Not so much debate as bullying

 

exile1 wrote:

Sven, I don't know a lot but one thing I do know is that you are the most annoying tw@t on this site and if given the opportunity to punch you lights out I would not hesitate. endex

Hear, hear. I guess there is quite a queue forming!

 

I agree, can you not just "do one" Sven?

 

Sven, it would not be bullying. It would be what you deserve. It is not your opinion that people object to, it is your presentation. You are like a small child who pokes a terrier and is then surprised when it bites him.

Also you are clearly intelligent enough to know what you are doing when you choose to deliberately wind people up.

In short, you are clever but not quite as clever as you think you are and you are an irritant.

 

Sven, I don't think it's your stance, more your uncanny ability to be as patronising as a small child, but I think you already know that!

 

You and some posters do not like what I say, not just the way I say it. Since when is violence acceptable in a debate - it is the resort of bullys, the immature and those who know they have lost the arguement.

If You don't like the way I post some information, or my point of view, pull me up for it, not threaten to take me round the back.

 

Unbelievable, you've done it again!