Tony Blair has guts and isn't afraid to show it

You've got to hand it to Tony Blair, the British prime minister. He's got guts. He displayed this again this past week when he told his Labor Party conference that British troops will stay in Iraq, and Britain's place is alongside America.

This is not a popular position with many Britons, even within his own party, who believe otherwise.

It is eerily reminiscent of the lonely stand Winston Churchill took in the 1930s, warning many disbelieving Britons of the coming threat from fascism.

Blair has been steadfast in his view that the war in Iraq is a noble cause, which, if successful, will open the way to democratic reforms in the Arab world.

Mindful of the casualties, he told his followers this past week: "The way to stop the innocent dying is not to retreat, to withdraw, to hand these people over to the mercy of religious fanatics, or relics of Saddam, but to stand up for their right to decide their government in the same democratic way the British people do."

Then to critics of his alliance with the Bush administration: "I never doubted after Sept. 11 that our place was alongside America, and I don't doubt it now."

This Anglo-American alliance has been a long-standing thing, linking assorted Republican and Democratic American presidents with assorted Labor and Conservative British prime ministers, irrespective of ideology. It has endured throughout the confrontation with fascism. And then communism. And now terrorism.

In 10 days time, the Iraqi people, who earlier this year defied the death threats of terrorists and went to the polls in their millions, will decide on a new constitution. It may be an imperfect document. The political aftermath may be messy. But what emerges will be their first venture into democracy since the harsh years of Saddam Hussein's autocratic reign.

Blair and Bush are at one in their understanding that the war against terrorism is a long haul. Bush has underlined this since his first post 9/11 speech. It is a tough concept for some Americans, eager for quick fixes, to embrace.

This war demands not only the defeat of the terrorists but the re-education of an upcoming generation of Arabs who must reject the hate-filled curriculum of the madrassahs, or Islamist schools, and work for the political reforms and economic growth that are their road to a successful future.