Busy abroad, Blair faces dissent at home

LONDON -- Prime Minister Tony Blair has traveled the globe to help build an international coalition against terrorism, but he may soon have to use his diplomatic skills at his own doorstep.

Some members of Blair's own Labor Party are beginning to question the wisdom of British involvement in U.S.-led military strikes against Afghanistan.

Despite the dissent, Blair and still easily holds sway over most of his party, and the supporters of his stance among opposition parties outnumber the doubters in his own.

"We have no option but to continue this, to bring it to a successful conclusion and to close down that terrorist network once and for all," Blair said to a respectful silence Wednesday in the House of Commons.

But while many of those voicing reservations are veteran Blair opponents on Labor's left wing, unease about the military action appears to be spreading to some centrists who generally support the government.

"In the weeks since Sept. 11, there has been a wariness among members of Parliament of actually saying what they think, but I think that has now worn a little bit thin," said Labor legislator Doug Henderson, a former Foreign Office and Defense Ministry official.

Henderson told the British Broadcasting Corp. that the U.S.-British attacks in Afghanistan should stop "unless there is a very clear explanation of the kind of targets that are potential threats to American or British forces."

Boxing Afghans

At a special House of Commons session on terrorism Tuesday, lawmaker George Galloway, a longtime Blair foe and critic of Western policy in the Middle East, compared bombing impoverished, war-torn Afghanistan to a boxer pummeling a child.

"To mercilessly pound the civilian population of Afghanistan is morally grotesque," said Galloway, who also contended that the campaign will only lead to more violence, saying, "The course of action we are on risks the very Third World War which the ... fanatics set out to achieve."

Opinion polls indicate the public strongly supports British involvement in the bombardment aimed at terror suspect Osama bin Laden, his al-Qaida network and the Taliban.

But unease in the Labor Party has grown as the campaign grinds on. Worries center on the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, the reports of civilian casualties, and uncertainty about the aims of the U.S.-led coalition.