Papers praise moving war speech

Papers praise moving war speech

Although the start of hostilities came too late for the UK newspapers, none were under any illusion when they went to press that war was anything but hours away.

There is praise for a stirring eve-of-battle address by Lieutenant Colonel Tim Collins to his men in the Royal Irish Regiment.

The Daily Mail says his words brought tough infantrymen to tears. Its front page headline quotes from the speech: "We go to liberate, not to conquer. If you are ferocious in battle, remember to be magnanimous in victory."

The Sun is the one to draw parallels with the Bard.

Few can match Henry V, it says, but Colonel Collins shows the true mettle of the British forces.

Honest, upright Iraqis

For all its misgivings about the war, the Daily Mirror is also impressed. It advises readers to read his words, after all the "jingoistic nonsense from George Bush and his warmongering political cronies".

Among other things, the colonel told his troops they would have to travel a long way to find a more decent, generous and upright people than the Iraqis.

A sentiment echoed by the Independent, and its correspondent in Baghdad, Robert Fisk.

As a Brit, buying emergency rations on Wednesday was an instructive experience, he says. There was not a curse, nor a bad word. He was told that he was always welcome.

An ominous picture dominates the front page of the Guardian, and others. A line of British infantrymen heads north towards Iraq - shadowy figures almost swallowed in the sand and dust of a desert storm.

Perplexed by lack of defence

Despite the conditions there was, according to the Independent, a confidence bordering on swagger among the troops preparing to invade.

But, says the Times, it is a different story on the other side of the battle lines, where morale has all but ebbed away, and intelligence reports suggest there will be mass defections.

The Mail is perplexed by the apparent lack of military preparation in and around Baghdad. Either the Iraqi leader has a diabolical plan up his sleeve, it says, or the road to the city is virtually undefended.

Closer to home, there is incredulity at the decision by firefighters to ignore union leaders, and reject the latest pay offer designed to end the long-running dispute.

The Independent believes the timing was staggering.

To wait until only hours before the tanks began to move to call off the strike scheduled for Thursday - keeping 19,000 troops still on strike cover standby - seemed the final insensitivity.

'Eton Against the War'

Until that is, the fire brigade activists met on Wednesday.

It beggars belief, says the Mail. They have torn up a generous pay deal and are now talking about more strikes at a time when the nation is at its most vulnerable.

There is precious little sympathy too, for the school-age peace protestors who left their classrooms yesterday to demonstrate up and down the country.

The Daily Telegraph finds it comical that the largest banner on display in Parliament Square was "Eton Against the War" - but feels there was something creepy in the anti-war movement's mobilisation of schoolchildren behind a political cause.

The organisers, it says, ought to be ashamed.