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[Which is what his predecessors said in 1842...."We are always on the side of the Afghan people against the Taliban"? This is the same Great Britain that set up a terrorist training camp in Scotland in the 1980s to assist the CIA's theocratic assets to render Afghanistan a "failed state" in the first place. Rail Britannia.] British Prime Minister Tony Blair (R) walks with Afghanistan's interim leader Hamid Karzai upon his arrival at Bagram air base January 7, 2002. Blair flew into Afghanistan becoming the first Western head of government to visit the country since the fall of the Taliban regime. Photo by Dan Chung WIRE: 01/07/2002 4:46 pm ET Blair Promises Afghans World Will Not Abandon Them By Kate Kelland BAGRAM AIRBASE, Afghanistan (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair promised the war-weary people of Afghanistan on Monday that the world would not abandon them again. Speaking at Bagram airbase north of Kabul, Blair said the world had learned how high a price was paid for neglect. "Afghanistan has been a failed state for too long and the whole world has paid the price -- in the export of terror, the export of drugs and finally in the explosion in death and destruction on the streets of the U.S.," he told a news conference at the base. Blair, the first Western leader to visit Kabul since the attacks on New York and Washington on September 11, hailed the "extraordinary progress" achieved by the U.S.-led war against the former Taliban regime. "We are always on the side of the Afghan people against the Taliban," he said. "And we remain on the side of the Afghan people today." Blair flew into Bagram in the dead of night on a British Royal Air Force C130 Hercules with his wife Cherie and around a dozen British government officials. They were met at the airport by Hamid Karzai, the leader of Afghanistan's interim government. Blair also met the commander of British forces in Afghanistan, Major-General John McColl and the United Nations envoy to Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi. Karzai told him: "We are delighted to welcome such a distinguished personality of the world to visit us in Afghanistan at such a difficult time. Our people and government are glad that you were able to join us." PRAISE FOR BRITISH TROOPS In his speech, Blair praised British troops leading the U.N.-mandated International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Kabul. Around 500 British troops are engaged in peacekeeping operations in the Afghan capital alongside local forces and troops from the United States, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Canada. The full ISAF force is expected to eventually number 4,500 troops from up to 16 nations. Britain has said a total of 1,500 of its troops will be deployed. Months of relentless air raids and ground operations by Afghan fighters and Western special forces have destroyed the Taliban regime and severely damaged the al Qaeda network based in Afghanistan. But America's two most wanted men, Taliban supreme leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and Osama bin Laden, the man blamed for the September 11 attacks, remain at large. Blair said the objectives of capturing Omar and bin Laden "have to be achieved." "We discussed this and the commitment of the interim government to helping the achievement of those objectives is very, very important but I wouldn't underestimate what has been achieved." Blair said the destruction of the Taliban had opened up possibilities for Afghanistan to regain stability and address its political and humanitarian crises. "There has been a huge increase in the flow of humanitarian help to Afghanistan and extraordinary progress on the diplomatic front too," he told the news conference. "The international community is here to help in the long term but Afghanistan's future is in the hands of the Afghan people," he said. The British premier's visit to Afghanistan came as the final leg of a tour during which he also visited India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE video emails in Yahoo! Mail! http://promo.yahoo.com/videomail/ ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
