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UK troops prepare for war
LONDON, England -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair has put the country's armed forces on a war footing. In a Christmas message delivered on Friday, he told troops to be prepared for action against Iraq if Saddam Hussein fails to comply with U.N. demands to disarm. Speaking on the British Forces Broadcasting Service, he apologised for the uncertainty facing those now being mobilised. He said: "I'm sorry about the uncertainty. I'm afraid it's inevitable though, because at the moment we simply don't know whether Iraq will be found in breach of the United Nations resolution. "And if it is, and if we discover they have been refusing to cooperate properly with the U.N. inspectors, then we have always made clear that we will go back to the security council, that we will be prepared to use force in order to ensure they are disarmed of all chemical, biological or potentially nuclear weapons." (Transcript) He added: "The key thing at the moment is to make all the preparations necessary, and to make sure that we are building up the capacity in the region -- both the Americans and ourselves -- and that we are able to undertake this mission if it falls to us to do so. "At the moment we simply don't know whether the inspectors will find the breach or not and we have got to be very, very clear, however, that the only circumstances in which Iraq will cooperate properly is if whatever U.N. resolution we have is backed up by the potential use of force." On Thursday, the chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix said Iraq had failed to provide evidence in its declaration which intended to prove that it no longer has weapons of mass destruction. (Full story) Iraq's deputy U.N. Ambassador Mohammed Salmane dismissed the charges as "baseless." The document could be verified on the ground by U.N. inspectors, he added. (Full story) U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw immediately stressed the gravity of the implications of the report's findings. Powell said Iraq's declaration was "anything but current, accurate, full or complete" and that it "totally fails to meet the resolution's requirements." Straw said Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had his "finger on the trigger" of war. Of any decision ultimately to send forces into action, Blair said: "These are the hardest decisions because you are aware that you are putting people's lives at risk and that's why we should never undertake conflict unless we have exhausted all other options and possibilities. "But it's also the case as we have seen in the fight against international terrorism, as we have seen in situations like Kosovo, as we have seen when we are dealing with someone like Saddam Hussein, unless you do have the capability to use force if necessary, it's very hard to make the world a more secure and peaceful place. "Sometimes the best way of avoiding war is to be prepared for war if you have to have it." Blair was speaking as Britain's European neighbours gave their reaction to Washington and London's condemnation of Iraq in the wake of the U.N. weapons inspectors' report. (Full story) French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin said that if Iraq reneges on its commitments to disarm, "the Security Council, on the basis of the report of Mr Blix, should be called together to examine the array of options, including the use of force." German Defence Minister Peter Struck said he was surprised by the hostile U.S. reaction to Iraq's arms declaration. Struck told Germany's Deutschlandfunk radio: "We had assumed that the report that Iraq has presented would be intensively checked by Hans Blix and his inspectors and it was assumed that there would be the opportunity for it first to be revisited or rather improved by Saddam Hussein."
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These are the hardest decisions because you are aware that you are putting people's lives at risk.
