In Face of Doubt, Blair Stands Firm

Prime Minister Tony Blair urged Britons on Tuesday to stiffen their resolve as a new opinion poll indicated a drop in public support for the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.

In a speech to the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff, Blair asked the country not to forget the hijacked planes crashing into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. The military campaign has entered its fourth week amid reports of mounting civilian casualties from the bombing.

He said Western governments have “a flood” of evidence against Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network and its Taliban sponsors, whom he called the “sworn enemies of everything the civilized world stands for.” He said they will kill again if they are not stopped.

“They have one hope . . . that we lack the moral fiber or will or courage to take them on, that we might begin but we won’t finish,” Blair said. “They are wrong, because we will not falter. We will not stop until our mission is complete.”

Blair issued the appeal before leaving on another Mideast diplomatic tour that began in Damascus, Syria, and was expected to include stops in Saudi Arabia and Israel. His foreign travel schedule has been kept secret for security reasons since he took the lead in supporting the U.S. war on terrorism.

He is expected to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat to prod them toward a peace settlement. Blair believes that progress on the Israeli-Palestinian front is essential to maintaining Arab and Muslim support for the war in Afghanistan.

Egyptian Exile Charged in Masoud Conspiracy

Also on Tuesday, the British government formally charged an Egyptian exile with conspiring to murder the military leader of Afghanistan’s Northern Alliance, Ahmed Shah Masoud, two days before Sept. 11.

Yasser Serri, 38, whose Islamic Observation Center serves as a propaganda arm of Islamic fundamentalist groups, was also accused of soliciting support for a banned Egyptian extremist organization, Gamaa al Islamiya, fund-raising for a terrorist group and publishing material intended to incite racial hatred.

The Islamic Observation Center is alleged to have provided letters of accreditation to two suicide bombers who posed as journalists to gain access to Masoud to kill him.

Gareth Pierce, Serri’s attorney, called the charges “utter rubbish . . . imaginary in the mind of the police.”

She said a letter of introduction Serri apparently had once written and addressed “To Whom It May Concern” had been “cannibalized, added to and forged.”

U.S. and British officials believe that Bin Laden may have arranged for Masoud’s death to help the Taliban ahead of the anticipated military retribution by the U.S. after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Serri, in exile in Britain since 1984, has been sentenced to death in absentia in Egypt for an assassination attempt on the prime minister. The Egyptian government has been pressing Britain for his arrest and extradition for years.

In his speech, Blair reiterated Britain’s objectives in the Afghan war: to close down the Al Qaeda network, to bring Bin Laden and his associates to justice and to remove the Taliban regime for supporting him.

Unlike Bin Laden, he said, the U.S. and Britain are doing “all we can to minimize civilian casualties.” But he acknowledged that there were some.

Civilian casualties are believed to be partly responsible for the changing mood of the British public.

While 62% of those surveyed still approve of the military action by the United States and Britain, support has fallen from 74% three weeks ago, according to a poll for the Guardian newspaper.

Antiwar sentiment is not growing as quickly. Only 20% of the 1,000 adults interviewed by telephone disapproved of the war. But more than half, 54%, believe there should be a pause in the bombing to allow aid convoys to go into Afghanistan, a move most military analysts reject.

Guardian columnist Hugo Young said a drop in British support is to be expected given that the United States, not Britain, was attacked.

This “weakens the war’s hold on the British gut. Most people here may regard the campaign as being in pursuit of a cause that is not only just but necessary to life, limb and human happiness. They want terrorism to be dealt with,” Young said. “But they haven’t been in the line of fire. As time passes, the cause, however right, becomes a little more academic than it will ever be to Americans.”

Painful War Images May Have Brought Shift

However, it may be more than detachment that explains the dip in British support for the war. The front-page poll story was accompanied by a photograph of a badly burned Afghan child, and similar pictures are seen on television each night. Blair acknowledged that civilian casualties, the plight of starving refugees and fears for postwar Afghanistan have had an impact on public opinion.

“All these concerns deserve to be answered,” he said. “No one who raises doubts is an appeaser or a faint heart. We are a democracy, strong enough to have doubts raised even at a time of war and wise enough, I hope, to be able to respond to them.”

Blair’s comments follow charges by members of his Labor Party last week that his government was trying to stifle dissent in Parliament.

Paul Marsden, a member of Parliament from Shrewsbury and Atcham, said he was not opposed to a military campaign in Afghanistan, but he wants a free debate about the effectiveness of the bombing and specific United Nations backing for any military action. He and a handful of other members of Parliament plan to launch an anti-bombing campaign in the media and on the floor of Parliament, despite warnings from their leaders.

Blair tried to take the moral high ground from them Tuesday.

“It is important we never forget why we are doing this, never forget how we felt watching the planes flying into the trade towers,” he said. “Never forget how we felt imagining how mothers felt telling children they were about to die, never forget the guts of the firefighters and police . . . who died trying to save others.”

He said Bin Laden and his associates “intend to commit further atrocities unless we yield to their demands.” Those include the “eradication of Israel, killing of all Jews and setting up of fundamentalist states in all parts of the Arab and Muslim world,” Blair said.

Britain last week committed 200 Royal Marines for action in Afghanistan and put an additional 400 on a high state of readiness. British missile-launching submarines and specialized refueling and reconnaissance aircraft have also been supporting the Americans.