For Immediate Release
November 16, 2004

Global Message

From remarks by U.K. Prime Minister Blair on NBC's Meet the Press, 11/14/04

Getting rid of Saddam Hussein meant liberating Iraq from this very brutal dictator. Now we have to liberate it from terrorists who are trying stop the country from making progress toward democracy.

Terrorists know that if Iraq becomes democratic, they can't tell the Muslim world that Americans and British are trying to suppress Islam. Democracy is a big blow to terrorists.

We must not retreat, but instead make sure that the job is done.

Some people think Iraq was stable before the war, but it was not. Sixty percent of the country was on food aid. There were thousands of people brutally killed. It was a country that, within the last couple of decades, started two major wars.

Outside terrorists went into Iraq and formed a coalition with the former Saddam people. They lack popular support, and some reports say that terrorists in Fallujah are responsible for barbaric acts.