Blair takes a lashing but wins support on Iraq

London - Prime Minister Tony Blair weathered the biggest revolt of his term from within the ruling Labor Party and won a parliamentary endorsement tonight for his pro-American position on the Iraq crisis.

Backed by the opposition Conservative Party, Blair prevailed handily in the House of Commons, by a vote of 393 to 199, and defeated a motion that said the case for war against Iraq had not yet been proven. But 122 of those voting in favor of the motion came from his own party, in the largest parliamentary challenge to his authority as party leader since he became prime minister six years ago. Labor holds 410 seats in the 659-member chamber.

The vote followed a rancorous, six-hour debate that exposed deep divisions over military action against Iraq's president, Saddam Hussein. While most Conservatives voted with Blair, a handful of senior party members, including several former government ministers, joined the rebellious members of the Labor Party and the minority Liberal Democrats in opposing Blair's position.

Blair's supporters, citing the final margin of victory, said he had the mandate he needed to continue his support of President Bush. But his opponents within Labor said they had bloodied the prime minister and expressed hope that he would think again before following the United States into war.

"The message to Tony Blair, respectfully, is you need to go to George W. and tell him Britain isn't ready yet to go to war, not on the American timetable," said Graham Allen, a leader of the Labor revolt.

In recent weeks, public opinion polls have shown dwindling support for military action and a steady decline in Blair's approval rating . More than a million anti-war demonstrators marched through London 11 days ago, in the largest political rally in the nation's history.

Speakers on both sides of today's debate issued emotional appeals. Blair invoked traditional British support for the military. "I bet that the vast bulk of the British forces out there, the thing they would really like to know is that if they do have to go into conflict they have a united House [of Commons] and country behind them," he said.

Blair strongly hinted that Britain would participate in war even without an endorsement from the United Nations. But he said a decision to go to war had not yet been made.

When Michael Moore, a spokesman on foreign affairs for the Liberal Democrats , brought up the damage war might inflict on the Iraqi people, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw broke in and demanded: "Could the honorable member just tell the House how many Muslims Saddam Hussein has killed?"

Opponents of a war were equally vociferous. "Let's not forget what we're talking about here," said Chris Smith, a former Labor minister. "We're talking about going to war. We're talking thousands if not hundreds of thousands of lives being lost."

Critics of the war position said the United States and Britain had not made a case for military action.

But Ann Clwyd, a member of the Labor Party, declared she would support the war to help ease Iraqi suffering. Citing the torture and murder of civilians, she asked: "When I hear people calling for more time, I say who's going to speak up for those victims? Who is to help the victims of Saddam Hussein's regime unless we do?" -- Washington Post

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