Times Online We won't dither over Iraq this time, says Blair
From David Charter in Coolum and Tom Baldwin



TONY BLAIR yesterday began the countdown to military action against Iraq to stop President Saddam Hussein’s efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction.

The Prime Minister confirmed that he would meet President Bush soon to discuss how to crack down on rogue states such as Iraq and North Korea before the world suffered another act of global terrorism.
In his most bellicose statement on the issue, Mr Blair told Australian television that Britain and the United States would not repeat the mistake of dithering over Iraq as they had done for too long over Afghanistan. Delays in taking action then, despite the clear warning of the US Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, in which 231 people died, allowed al-Qaeda to prosper and plot the September 11 attacks, he said.
The Prime Minister said the threat may not only be from conventional weapons but also from nuclear or biolological attack. “This is something we have got to deal with,” Mr Blair said during an interview with Australia’s Channel Nine.