[Peace-discuss] Straw in the wind? (fwd)

[C. G. Estabrook]

[This just might be important.  Straw is a weather-vane (appropriately
enough), a "college radical" become party apparatchik, a trimmer who
engineered Pinochet's escape from the might of British justice.  He
obviously relishes sitting at the UNSC table as UK foreign minister but
also is a not-so-secret rival for Tony Blair's job.  If he's correctly
quoted here, it shows the immediate effect of the weekend's demos.  We
have a fairly substantial rat preparing to disembark from an increasingly
unseaworthy New Labour government -- and no doubt hoping that Captain
Blair will go down with it... --CGE]

Mirror (London) - February 17, 2003

By Naveed Raja

Jack Straw today conceded that the enormity [sic] of the anti-war protests
at the weekend made it "very difficult" to launch an invasion of Iraq.

The Foreign Secretary acknowledged the sheer size and strength of feeling
against a potentially devastating new Gulf war.

He told the BBC: "It was a very, very large demonstration, probably the
largest one we've seen in our recent democratic history in London. We have
to take account of public opinion."

When asked if the government could start a war without public backing,
Straw said it would be "very difficult indeed in those circumstances".

He said: "It's patently more straightforward for governments to take a
country to war, to military action, if they've palpably got the whole of
the population behind them than if not."

His words were a marked contrast to the confrontational rhetoric used by
Tony Blair on Saturday. He claimed the 1.5million-plus protestors would
have "blood on their hands" if they stopped military action.

Blair's words marked a shift of emphasis towards the "moral case" for
invading Iraq after UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix said that NO
weapons of mass destruction had been found.

Today Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott brushed aside the concerns of
Saturday's marchers saying: "I don't think it is a worry about the lack of
support."

Meanwhile European Union leaders were locked in an emergency summit over
the Iraq crisis still bitterly divided over what action to take.

France and Germany led the peace camp in pushing for more time for weapons
inspectors to do their work in Iraq.

French Foreign Minister Dominique De Villepin remained defiant telling
reporters that Britain, Italy and Spain were taking "strictly an American
line."

And Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel hailed the 10 million anti-war
protestors around the world saying: "The best allies of our cause are
those people."

Pope John Paul II's special envoy added his voice to those against an
attack on Iraq after he returned from meeting Saddam Hussein in Baghdad.

Cardinal Roger Etchegaray said: "Peace is still possible in Iraq and for
Iraq. I believe that more strongly than ever before."

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