Britain is embroiled in a fresh conflict with Iraq as it battles to quash global terrorism for ever, British Prime Minister Tony Blair declared in a stark relabeling of the situation on Sunday.
Sixteen months after US President George W. Bush declared that combat operations were over, the British prime minister used a joint press conference with his Iraqi counterpart, Ayad Allawi, to say that coalition forces were engaged in a "new conflict" now that the "first conflict" to remove former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was over. But the battleground of this fight was global terrorism versus "the side of democracy and liberty."
"Whatever the disagreements about the first conflict in Iraq to remove Saddam, in this conflict now taking place in Iraq, this is the crucible in which the future of this global terrorism will be decided.
"Either it will succeed and this terrorism will grow, or we will succeed, the Iraqi people will succeed and this global terrorism will be delivered a huge defeat," he said.
Blair's fresh presentation of the chaos engulfing parts of Iraq came as the head of the UK army, General Sir Mike Jackson, admitted that British troops were now fighting "a counterinsurgency war."
With 300 people killed last week, including three Kurdish hostages beheaded yesterday, he said: "August was a very busy month and British soldiers were involved in war fighting."
The relabeling -- described by the Foreign Office as a "new language" -- also comes a week before the Labour conference, at which Blair can expect to face his party's fury at his handling of the conflict.
A YouGov poll at the weekend suggested that support for the conflict is at its lowest. A mere 38 percent of people now believe the war was right, and 52 percent think it was wrong, compared with 66 percent who supported the war, and 29 percent who opposed it, when US troops entered Baghdad on April 10 last year. Women in particular appear to have withdrawn their support, with only 30 percent thinking troops should remain, compared with 47 percent of men.
Blair adopted a conciliatory tone, insisting he did not want to prevent debate over "the wisdom of removing Saddam" and acknowledging the conflict had been "deeply divisive."
But he insisted every "sensible and decent person" should move on and recognize that the terrorists and insurgents were opposed to "every single one of the values we in countries like this hold dear."
"Now is not the time for the international community to divide or disagree but to come together ... and realize that the struggle of the prime minister and the Iraqi people, for liberty and democracy and stability, is actually our struggle too."
He rejected suggestions that the coalition and Iraqi forces were already losing the war against terror, but -- acknowledging there was "a real fight going on" -- indicated the scale of their difficulty.
"If we succeed in Iraq that's a huge blow to this form of terrorism. If we don't, then of course it's very serious.
"We are fighting and we will succeed because our determination and belief in our values is greater than the terrorists', and we are going to win."
Speaking at the Downing Street press conference, Allawi appeared more defiant than Blair in predicting "success against the forces of evil." He called for greater UN involvement, but insisted the January elections would go ahead, despite the continuing carnage.
"We are adamant democracy is going to prevail in Iraq," he said.
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