LONDON, 20 November 2003 — 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 yesterday 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-gray 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 today when Bush holds talks with Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Organizers expect 100,000 to turn out for today’s march amid unprecedented security in the British capital to guard the president and thwart a feared terrorist incident. Several hundred protesters converged on the front gates of Buckingham Palace at nightfall, shouting slogans and waving flags and banners as police looked on.
Bush’s speech yesterday 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 trans-Atlantic fallout 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 “spread of democratic values” in the Middle East and throughout the world.
Following his speech, Bush rode off to meet relatives of British victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center at the US Embassy and then attended a lavish state dinner at Buckingham Palace in his honor.
