Michael White
'Let us reorder this world'
Thu Nov 1 18:44:17 2001


Let us reorder this world'

Michael White, political editor
Wednesday October 3, 2001
The Guardian

Tony Blair yesterday turned his battle against the terrorists who
ravaged New York into a far wider struggle for a new world order
that would uphold human dignity and social justice "from the
slums of Gaza to the mountain ranges of Afghanistan".

In what was almost certainly the most powerful speech of his
career, the prime minister used his speech to the Labour
conference to synthesise an uncompromising hostility to Osama
bin Laden's terrorist network - and the Taliban if they do not give
him up - with a vaunting promise to remake the world as a better
place.

The sweep and moral fervour of the 54-minute address caught
friend and foe off guard. There were no party political jibes and
barely a triumphalist mention of Labour's historic June 7 election
victory. The Conservatives damned the performance with faint
praise.

Evidently sensitive to charges that he was sounding too
confrontational, Mr Blair acknowledged that many people are
fearful of what lies ahead - and sought to reassure voters whose
unwavering support is vital to a long campaign.

"Our way of life is a great deal stronger and will last a greal deal
longer than the actions of fanatics, small in number and now
facing a unified world against them. People should have
confidence. This is a battle with only one outcome: our victory,
not theirs," he insisted.

Admitting his own helplessness in the face of so much
bereavement on September 11, Mr Blair had earlier said of the
dead: "They don't want revenge, they want something better in
memory of their loved ones. I believe their memorial can and
should be that out of the shadow of this evil should emerge
lasting good."

The speech, which was, unusually, drafted by Mr Blair himself,
also reflected his private moral preoccupations to an unusual
degree. But before a largely secular audience it was repeatedly
punctuated with bursts of applause in the packed but sombre
Brighton conference centre, where the foreshortened 2001
conference ends today.

As the prime minister sat down he was praised for his vision and
tone by friends and critics alike within Labour's ranks, though
delegates may come down to earth with a jolt when they size up
to the challenges he posed in the name of "the power of
community" - local and global - to do good.

"He didn't deal with the whats and hows, but he certainly
explained the why," said one former cabinet member. Some
leftwingers and trade unionists, irked by the address's
religiosity, called it "messianic" and lacking commitment to the
means of righting the world's wrongs.

They were a minority. "Brilliant," said a senior colleague after
hearing his party leader - famous for his regard for business
tycoons - declare: "The starving, the wretched, the
dispossessed, the ignorant, they are our cause too."

Throughout the day's debates senior ministers, including Jack
Straw, Geoff Hoon and Clare Short, had stressed the importance
of adhering to international law in the search for justice - a point
echoed by the veteran Tony Benn in an emotional warning
against the "sorrows of war".

An end to famine, poverty and corruption in Africa, as well as
genocidal conflicts such as Rwanda's, were only part of an
agenda that foresaw the world tackling such intractable
problems as global warming and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict -
an "equal partnership" side by side in their own lands.

Though the back half of Mr Blair's text addressed the domestic
agenda - the need to put improved public services before tax
cuts - he repeatedly went out of his way to reconcile Islam with
the west, above all with America.

For all its flaws the US, where a black child of poverty such as
Colin Powell could rise to be secretary of state ("I wonder frankly
whether such a thing could have happened here") was still a
model to the world, he argued.

Nor had America lashed out, as some had predicted: "no
missiles on the first night just for effect". When military strikes
came they would be "proportionate, targeted - we will do all we
humanly can to avoid civilian casualties".

While the west must address its shameful ignorance of Islam,
he later suggested, "it is time also for parts of Islam to confront
prejudice against America" - not only Islam, but "parts of
western societies too". That was loudly applauded in a
conference where such sentiments have long existed.

But Mr Blair's conciliatory and idealistic tone was not extended
to the enemy of the moment, whose version of Islam was "no
more obedient to the proper teachings of the Koran" than the
crusaders of the Middle Ages had exemplified the gospel
message, he said.

"Be in no doubt Bin Laden and his people organised this
atrocity," Mr Blair insisted. He offered no evidence, although he
did suggest that terrorism finances itself through Afghan heroin
sold on the streets of Britain.

His contempt for the Taliban and their denial of human rights,
especially for women, was stinging. But he did not say, as
Labour briefers had indicated overnight, that it was already too
late to avoid military retribution.

"I say to the Taliban: surrender the terrorist or surrender power.
It's your choice."

Mr Blair's pledge to defeat the "act of evil" that destroyed the
World Trade Centre - "if they could have murdered not 7,000 but
70,000 does anyone doubt they would have done so and
rejoiced?" - was only the trailer to a declaration that
globalisation made cooperation between nations and cultures
imperative.

"This is a moment to seize," he said. "The kaleidoscope has
been shaken, the pieces are in flux, soon they will settle again.
Before they do let us reorder this world around us and use
modern science to provide prosperity for all.

"Science can't make that choice for us, only the moral power of
a world acting as a community can."
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/labour2001/story/0,1414,562269,00.html
==========================================
George Bush's New World Order
©1997 by Gerry Rough

George Bush Sr.: "What is at
stake is more than one small country, it is a big
idea -- a 'New World Order'..."
http://www.geocities.com/nma_america/NWO.html