Mick Hartley

Clearly someone in Conservative Central Office reads this blog. Last week after the Spanish election results I wrote:

To avoid the spectre of Al Qaeda attempting by terror to influence the outcome of our next election, the Conservatives under Michael Howard should make it plain that they were in full support of our actions in Iraq, and had no intention, should they be elected, of withdrawing any British troops.

And now the man has done just that:

Michael Howard gave his most uncompromising backing to the war in Iraq yesterday and pledged that a Conservative government would never flinch from the battle to defeat terrorism.

Eight days after the Madrid bombings, and the subsequent change of government in Spain, Mr Howard sent out the message that he would never exploit the unpopularity of the Iraq war or allow terrorist outrages to weaken the West’s resolve to beat them.

He also backed pre-emptive military action in exceptional cases. In a clear reference to the Spanish election, which saw the surprise victory of a Socialist party that opposed the war, the Conservative leader said: “It would be a terrible thing indeed if last week’s murders in Madrid led the terrorists to conclude that attacking America results in retribution, but attacking Europe results in victory.”

And in words that rebuffed those in his party who would like to see him distancing himself from Tony Blair over Iraq, he added: “The war against Iraq was necessary. It was just. It was indeed arguably overdue. And it was overwhelmingly successful — a judgment which subsequent difficulties do not change.”

Mr Howard, speaking at a News Corporation conference in Cancún, Mexico, said that how the world coped with the threat of terrorism would decide the fate of civilisation.Today’s Islamic fanatics could not be appeased. They could only be defeated. Because if they won, half the world would be sent back into a “new Dark Age” with the other half cowering in trepidation.

He added: “If the terrorists hope they can gain their ends by perpetrating in Britain a similar outrage to that in Spain, their wickedness will be in vain. Whatever my disagreements with Tony Blair, any government that I lead will not flinch in its determiantion to win the war against terror, wherever it has to be fought.”

Countries could not insulate themselves from terrorist attack by opting out of the War on Terror, he added. “We cannot buy ourselves immunity by changing our foreign policy. Apart from the moral cowardice of that position it can never work in practice.”

Mr Howard said that it was the failure of the West to act decisively in the face of threats and provocation that emboldened the terrorists and rogue states. That failure must never be repeated. The Conservatives backed the Government last year over the war because Iraq was a real threat to the peace of the region and it was in gross and manifest breach of UN resolutions.

“What would have been the consequences if we had waited until a direct threat was real and imminent until we acted? Would we have been in a position to counter it? How could we take the risk that we would find ourselves impotent?”

If the West maintained its resolution, Iraq would be a much better place than it was under Saddam. The terrorists who murdered innocent people in New York and Madrid would like nothing better than to see the Western alliance splinter and break apart.

“We won the Second World War because we fought side-by-side with America. We won the Cold War because we stood side-by-side with America. And we will win this War on Terror if we wage it side-by-side with America.”

I have to say, I’m impressed. The leaders of our two main parties have now both made firm commitments to the war against terror.