I’ve heard that British PM Blair made a very stirring speech about the WTC disaster, but I’ve been unable to find a transcript of it. Being half British myself, I’m interested in what he had to say. Anyone know where I could find a copy of the speech he gave?
This is probably what you want, although he has since made a number of further public remarks.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk_politics/newsid_1537000/1537871.stm
The text of the fuller statement that Blair made from No. 10 on Tuesday evening is available here. Most of this was concerned with specific measures taken in response in the UK, but the final two paragraphs are a more general reaction.
Thanks! This is exactly what I was looking for. He certainly has a way with words.
I wish our president had PM Blair’s speech writers. I also wish our president could actually sound intelligent when giving a speech but that’s another matter and maybe too much to hope for.
Something like this and you expect a soundbite for the ages (i.e. “A day that will live in infamy”). I think our future will see soundbites from Blair’s speech instead which is sad (sad only because this being a tragedy on American soil you would hope an American would have something memorable to say about it).
One memorable quip I did like came from Sen. John McCain. “May God have mercy on them because we won’t.”
As an aside I’d like to thank all of our allied Dopers (and their governments and fellow citizens) for being remarkably cool during this whole thing. Given how Dubya has thumbed his nose at our allies in recent months I didn’t expect much more than mumbled platitudes about how sorry everyone was and see it left at that. Instead we actually see the fracturing NATO allies stand shoulder to shoulder in an unprecedented united front to stand with the US.
I, for one, am grateful for all of you. Thanks a million!
I meant to add in my previous post that the following quote from Prime Minister Blair is my vote for the quote to see this event through the decades and centuries to follow (at least it should be unless someone decides that the quote just has to come from the American President).
Kind of makes me wish that 'ol Ronald Reagan still had his faculties intact. No matter what you think of the job he did while in office, I’ve never heard a better speech-maker or had as much ability to stir up emotions in people.
No speechwriters for that one. It was delivered as an explanation to the Conference he was attending to explain why he wasn’t going to give the prepared address.
If you notice the time at the top of the page, you’ll see he spoke this about two hours (US East Coast + 5 hours)after the second plane hit the WTC – given everything that happened in those two hours (including at the Pentagon), the general lack of knowledge about what it was that was unfolding and also the immediate National Security and Government business that needed to be attended to, I’d guess he put this speech together himself in about 15-20 minutes.
There was a more substantial and considered speech delivered on Wednesday.
I especially liked:
*This mass terrorism is the new evil in our world today. It is perpetrated by fanatics who
are utterly indifferent to the sanctity of human
life and we, the democracies of this world, are
going to have to come together to fight it together and eradicate this evil completely from our world. *