22 December 2005
Tony Blair flew into Basra for a surprise Christmas visit to UK troops in Iraq.
Read the speech in full
Prime Minister:
Look, guys, I just wanted to say a couple of things really. First of all to say thank you to all of you for the work you are doing here. I know it is particularly tough being away from your families over Christmas and New Year, and it must be very hard at points, but I just want you to know how grateful we are and how grateful everyone is back home for the work you are doing here. And however tough it is, and I know it is difficult from time to time, I hope you also have some sense of how important it is. We have just had the elections here in Iraq, as you know, and over 10 million people came out and voted, and really the important thing is to try and help this country become the democracy its people want it to be, and the only way of doing that is to provide the security so that the Iraqi forces, the police and the Army can be built up, and then of course eventually we can draw down our own capability. And the importance of this probably is greater today than it has ever been, because if Iraq does stabilise and become a democracy, then the region is more safe, the wider world is more safe, our own country is more safe because international terrorism will be dealt a huge body blow. Basically what the terrorists want to say is that our purpose is to take their country off them, take their oil, take their religion, whereas actually what we want to do is to help this country become a democracy and have its people in charge of running things. And if we manage to defeat the terrorism here, then we will deal it a big blow worldwide, and every single civilised country in the world faces this terrorist threat today. And so you are right at the front line of it, and I just want to say to you thank you for what you are doing. You are doing a fantastic job and it is really deeply appreciated. I know how dangerous it is sometimes, because you know we have lost two colleagues here, and it is difficult I know sometimes in these situations. But the one thing for sure is that when you look back on this time, I think and hope you can feel very proud of what you have done, and certainly you should know your country is very proud of you indeed. So anyway that is about enough from me. Anyway nice to see you guys anyway, thank you, all of you, it is good to see you.
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