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compiled by Cem Ertür

 

26 September 2011

 

 

 

 

1) UK Prime Minister Cameron: We must not be afraid to use military force against tyrants  (22 September 2011)

 

2) UK Prime Minister Cameron: Libya and the Arab Spring shows the UN needs a new way of working  (22 September 2011)

 

from the archives:

 

3) UK Prime Minister Tony Blair: We should get actively involved in other people’s conflicts  (22 April 1999)

 

 

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The world must be prepared to take military action again after the successful [military] campaign in Libya to stop authoritarian regimes from slaughtering their own people, David Cameron will declare today.

 

In his first speech to the United Nations, the [UK] Prime Minister will say that the organisation must be quicker to intervene when people under brutal governments require its help.

 

The speech [...] is likely to draw comparisons with [former UK Prime Minister] Tony Blair's 1999 Chicago speech, in which he outlined conditions for Western military action in light of the conflict in Kosovo [i.e. the War on Yugoslavia]

 

 

 

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“My argument today is that [the war on] Libya and the Arab Spring shows the UN needs a new way of working.

 

Because the Arab Spring is a massive opportunity to spread peace, prosperity, democracy and vitally security but only if we really seize it.

 

So the events of this year present a challenge to [...] Iran and Syria, to give their people the freedoms they deserve. [...]

 

[T]he international community has found its voice in Libya. We must not now lose our nerve. We must have the confidence to speak out and act as necessary to support those who seek new freedoms. [...]

 

Here at the UN, we have a responsibility to stand up against regimes that persecute their people. We need to see reform in Yemen. And above all, on Syria, it is time for the Members of the [UN] Security Council to act. We must now adopt a credible [UN] resolution threatening tough sanctions [on Syria]. [...]

 

[M]y argument is that where [military] action is necessary, legal and right, to fail to act is to fail those who need our help.”

 

 

 

[UK Prime Minister David Cameron, speech to the United Nations General Assembly, New York, 22 September 2011]  (*)

 

 

 

 

(*) Prime Minister's first speech to the UN General Assembly

 

Number 10 (official website of UK Prime Minister’s Office), 22 September 2011

 

http://www.number10.gov.uk/news/pm-speech-to-unga/

 

 

 

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“One of the reasons why it is now so important to win the conflict [i.e. the War on Yugoslavia] is to ensure that others do not make the same mistake in the future. That in itself will be a major step to ensuring that the next decade and the next century will not be as difficult as the past. If NATO fails in Kosovo, the next dictator to be threatened with military force may well not believe our resolve to carry the threat through.  [...]

 

The most pressing foreign policy problem we face is to identify the circumstances in which we should get actively [i.e. militarily] involved in other people’s conflicts. [...] [T]he principle of non-interference must be qualified in important respects. Acts of genocide can never be a purely internal matter. When oppression produces massive flows of refugees which unsettle neighbouring countries then they can properly be described as "threats to international peace and security". [...]

 

One final word on the USA itself. [...] I say to you: never fall again for the doctrine of isolationism. The world cannot afford it. [...] And realise that in Britain you have a friend and an ally that will stand with you”

 

 

 

[UK Prime Minister Tony Blair (1997-2007), ‘Doctrine of the International Community’ speech, The Economic Club of Chicago, 22 April 1999. Mr Blair delivered this speech in the midst of the War on Yugoslavia (24 March-10 June 1999) and on the eve of NATO’s 50th Anniversary Summit in Washington DC]  (*)

 

 

 

 

(*)  Doctrine of the International Community

 

The National Archive website, 23 April 1999

 

http://collections.europarchive.org/tna/20011116003748/http://pm.gov.uk/default.asp?PageID=3990

 

 

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The White House website, 21 September 2011

 

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/09/21/remarks-president-obama-address-united-nations-general-assembly

 

 

 

 

The Chicago Council on Global Affairs website, 22 April 2009

 

http://www.thechicagocouncil.org/UserFiles/File/Events/FY09%20Events/04_April%2009/042209%20Tony%20Blair%20Remarks.pdf

 

 

 

 

The National Archive website, 12 November 2001

 

http://collections.europarchive.org/tna/20011116003748/http://pm.gov.uk/news.asp?NewsId=2997&SectionId=32

 

 

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by Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, 23 September 2011

 

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=26750

 

 

 

 

by Bill Van Auken, World Socialist Web Site, 22 September 2011

 

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/sep2011/boun-s22.shtml

 

 

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by Cem Ertür, San Francisco Bay Area Indymedia, 11 September 2011

 

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/11/18689941.php

 

 

 

by Cem Ertür, 911blogger, 20 April 2011

 

http://911blogger.com/news/2011-04-20/uk-foreign-minister-top-british-army-officers-libya-aid-rebels

 

 

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