Tony Blair on Iraq (ML)

What you are seeing in Iraq is an attempt by al Qaeda -- through these appalling suicide bombs and also, particularly, down in the south, through the improvised explosive devices by Iranian-backed elements -- to try to disturb any prospect of Sunni and Shia coming together and delivering what the people of Iraq want to see.

The forces that we are fighting in Iraq -- al Qaeda on the one hand, Iranian-backed elements on the other -- are the same forces we're fighting everywhere.

The enemy we are fighting is an enemy that is aiming its destruction at our way of life and anybody who wants that way of life.  And in those circumstances, the harder they fight, the more determined we must be to fight back. If what happens is, the harder they fight, the more our will diminishes, then that's a fight we're going to lose.  And this is a fight we cannot afford to lose.

More excerpts of his remarks are here.