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| Friday, 21 November 2003 |
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Bush tells the world to stand up to tyranny LONDON, Thursday (AFP) US President George W. Bush, flushed by a warm royal welcome to Britain, and turning a blind eye to protesters, appealed to the world's democracies to stop tolerating tyrants and join America in spreading the gospel of freedom around the globe. On the first full day of his controversial state visit to London, Bush defended his decision to wage war on Saddam Hussein's Iraq, saying "violent restraint of violent men" was a necessary option to confront repression. "We cannot turn a blind eye to oppression just because the oppression is not in our own backyard," Bush said. "No longer should we think tyranny is benign because it is temporarily convenient." "Tyranny is never benign to its victims and our great democracies should oppose tyranny wherever it is found." Clearly cheered by his ceremonial welcome to Buckingham Palace, and unfazed by both protesters and a tabloid newspaper's shock expose of flawed royal security, Bush used his major foreign policy address to sketch out his vision of the United States and the world. "The United States and Great Britain share a mission in the world beyond the balance of power or the simple pursuit of interest," he told a select audience at the opulent Banqueting House in central London. "We seek the advance of freedom and the peace that freedom brings," he said, as he praised the British and American people's "alliance of values". Bush, who arrived Tuesday in London from Washington, looked at once proud and awkward earlier in the day as Queen Elizabeth II treated him and First Lady Laura Bush to a ceremonial welcome under slate-grey skies at Buckingham Palace. In another part of London, some 350 opponents of Bush's visit and the Iraq war gathered for their own "alternative royal process" - complete with a pink "love tank" - warming up for a big street march Thursday when Bush holds talks with Prime Minister Tony Blair. Organizers expect 100,000 to turn out for Thursday's march amid unprecedented security in the British capital to guard the president and thwart a feared terrorist incident. Several hundred anti-Bush protesters converged on the front gates of Buckingham Palace, where the president is staying as the guest of the queen until Friday, shouting slogans and waving flags and banners. Demonstrators burned the US flag but there were no serious incidents or violence, although police arrested 31 for offences as diverse as criminal damage, drunkenness and theft. Bush's speech highlighted what he called the "three pillars" of international relations in the 21st century. One of the pillars - "effective multilateralism" - allowed Bush the chance to make amends with Europeans after the transatlantic fall-out over the US-led war on Iraq, which Bush launched without a definitive UN mandate. But Bush also insisted on the necessity at times to "use force to defend the peace and to defend values," and the moral obligation to the "spread of democratic values" in the Middle East and throughout the world, the official said. In the evening, Bush attended a lavish state dinner at Buckingham Palace in his honour. Queen Elizabeth told him that Britain and the United States "stand firm in their determination to defeat terrorism", adding that the two nations had "never been closer". |
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