New Email from Mr.McFarlane
"Robert McFarlane" <[email protected]> Add to Address Book Add Mobile Alert
To: "Robert McFarlane" <[email protected]>
Subject: FW: Blair advises against capitulation
Date: Fri, 29 Jun 2007 20:00:28 -0400
Interesting Comment by former Prime Minister Tony Blair
Bud
Excerpts by Prime Minister Tony Blair:
We are making a fundamental mistake. We think we are creating this
problem;
we are not creating it, it is being created for us. The very forces
that we
are fighting in Iraq, which are basically al-Qaeda doing the suicide
bombing, including the bombing of that shrine, deliberately to provoke
sectarian conflict, the elements of the Iranian regime who are backing
the
Muqtada al-Sadr people down in Basra, these are the elements that we
are
fighting in Afghanistan, that we are fighting everywhere, if we do not
stand
up and fight them back, and at some point in time we are going to have
to,
they are going to get stronger. What they now believe is that they can
give
us, and the politicians who are democratically elected in the West,
such a
serious problem, in terms of the destruction and carnage that they are
able
to cause, that we will lose our will and fall away.
As we began to get the country on its feet, as they started to make
preparations for democracy, then of course the people who were fighting
suddenly realised, "If you let these guys succeed here, how do we
manage to
get across our case? How can we say that the purpose of the West and
America
is to oppress the Muslim world if actually Muslims for the first time
in
Iraq and Afghanistan are getting the right to vote", it is a difficult
argument to make.
I am in a position where I do not write what is on my tombstone, other
people do. I do not know what they will do. What I do know is that if
we end
up saying that because these people are committing these acts of
terrorism
in Iraq or Afghanistan that we should not have done the removal of
Saddam or
the removal of the Taliban, then we are making a fundamental mistake
about
our own future, about security, about the values we should be defending
in
the world. We cannot be in a situation where the harder they fight us
the
less our will is to succeed. If we are not careful, we will be in that
situation.
I think we will have difficulty defeating this terrorism until we stop
buying a little way into its argument, or even quite a long way into
its
argument. I was stopped by someone the other day who said to me, "Look
at
all these people who are dying in Iraq", and I said to them, "We are
not
killing them." How can we be said to be oppressing the ordinary Muslim
on
the street when if the violence - perpetrated incidentally by other
Muslims
on Muslims - stopped we would be able to get the country on its feet,
it is
a prosperous, wealthy country and its people would prosper? My point
is, I
do not dispute that on the Arab street there is a lot hatred of the
West,
but my point is you are not going to defeat that until you challenge
it.
Update From Mr. McFarlane
To: "Tommy"
From: "Robedert McFarlane"
Subject: FW: Cairo Meeting
Date: Sat, 7 Jul 2007 12:55:28 -0400
Friends,
I posed the question to Andrew "Will the Egyptian Government accept
Shia
participation (there is a formal edict against it)?" Also what level or
participation do you expect?
The answer (below) is very encouraging.
Best regards,
Bud
-----Original Message-----
From: Canon Andrew P B White [[email protected]] On Behalf
Of
Canon Andrew P B White
Sent: Saturday, July 07, 2007 12:07 PM
To: [email protected]
Cc: XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Subject: RE: Cairo
Dear Bud,
The Eyptian Government is in regulat contact with us and they are
certainly
willing for Shia to go. At the moment it looks as if the delegates will
be
of a very high standard indeed.
From the Sunni Community we have:
Shekh Ahmed Al Qubasi the most senior Iraqi Sunni now living in Dubai
Shekh
Abdul Latif Humayeem leader of the Iraqi Scholars Associaltion Sheikh
Abdel
Melekh Sadi The most senior Sunni leader in Iraq
From the Shiah Community
Shekh Fateh (very close to Sistani)
Ayatollah Abu Ra Geef
Sayed Mohmed Riddah Sistanis son
Ayatollah Al Hakim (Head of SCIRI)
I am meeting with Muqtada Al Sader's most senior people this week so I
hope
one of them will come. I am also certain that either the Assyrian or
Arminian Archbishop of Baghdad will come. So it will be a very high
level
delegation.
Sheikh Fateh, Chaplain Hoyt and I had a very good meeting with General
Scott
today. He is very supportive and we shared the things I mentioned in
the
previous email. All of the above will bring somebody with them.
Blessings
Andrew