PM's address to Troops in Kabul
20 November 2006
Tony Blair has told soldiers in Afghanistan that British people have "pride and respect" for the work they are doing.
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Prime Minister:
First of all I want to say "thank you" to all of you. You're doing long tours of duty in many cases, and it's a long way from home, and you're leaving your friends and family and you're going into a situation where there's a lot of danger and sometimes you may not know this, but people back home are very proud of the work that you do and whatever they think of the political details, and the politicians and all of us in parliament, I think there's only one thing they think about you which is a real sense of pride and respect and admiration for the work that you do.
But I think you all kind of know that, and I think what's more important is, if you don't mind, through you to try and tell people back home why the work you are doing here is so important, because you're out here in the middle of Afghanistan at this extraordinary camp that's been created here, literally in the middle of nowhere, for a reason. And the reason is that this is the country that was used as a training ground for al-Qaeda and terrorism, it was a country that was run by the Taliban, it was a country which wasn't just a failed state, but was exporting terrorism and violence right around the world. And the reason that we came in here and we got rid of the Taliban five years ago, was precisely because we wanted to stop this country being used as a training ground for terrorism, and that stuggle's continuing for a very simple reason, you know, the people that we're fighting want to fight us back and the way we're going to beat them is to have the determination and the courage and the absolute will to make sure that however much they fight us we are prepared to stand up to them, fight them back and defeat them. And when we defeat them, when you defeat them, you are defeating them not just on behalf of people here in Afghanistan, but on behalf of our country, Britain, but also on behalf of the wider world.
That's the threat we face today, it's the same the world over. Just last night when I was in Pakistan and talking to them there about the problems they face. If this goes wrong in Afghanistan, they feel the consequences, the whole of this region does, then the wider world does as well.
And so this is a fight of a different kind altogether from anything we've faced as a country, certainly in the post war years. And it's not the same, I know, as two major countries fighting together, it's a different type of fight. And the methods that the terrorists use are very different as well, but this is so important, I mean, here in this extraordinary piece of desert is where the future in the early 21st century of the world community is ready to be played out, and you are the people that are doing the difficult work, and you should know that not just you are appreciated, but the importance of the work that you do is appreciated as well.
Now, I've had many requests for pay rises on my way round, and of course I'm listening very hard, could be an expensive visit this!!
But I know that the soldiering you are doing is not just the very toughest end of it, it's not probably what some people expected when they joined a few years back, but the one thing that I think everybody who has come here has found today, is that when they talk about morale, you're enough to make anyone feel very humble and very proud because you've got that pride in what you do, and it shines through.
So I just wanted to say, really, thank you. I should say thank you also to the troops I know we've got some troops here from Denmark and Estonia today as well and to say thank you to the Afghans that work with us too. We're all in this together in the end. There are two groups of people in this world, there are a group of people who want to live in peace and harmony with each other whatever your race or your background or your religion, and there are others who want to sow sectarianism and hatred and division, and we're standing up for those who know that the only way to secure peace sometimes is to be prepared to fight for it.
So, thank you all very much indeed for having me here, and good luck in what you're doing.
