TONY BLAIR based an impassioned defence of military action on a personal e-mail written by an exiled 19-year-old Iraqi student at Cambridge.

Rania Kashi, in her first year at the university, had written the e-mail to a few close friends, questioning their reasons for joining anti-war protests and telling them of her family’s experiences of living under President Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Mr Blair distributed a copy of the e-mail to delegates at Labour’s spring conference in Glasgow on Saturday. He told them: “Read it all. It is the reason why I do not shrink from action against Saddam if it proves necessary. Ridding the world of Saddam would be an act of humanity. It is leaving him there that is inhumane.”

In her e-mail, Ms Kashi, from northwest London, described the anti-war movement as “misjudged and misplaced”.

She wrote: “You may feel that America is trying to blind you from seeing the truth about its real reasons for an invasion. I must argue that, in fact, it is you who are still blind to the bigger truths in Iraq.

“Saddam has murdered more than a million Iraqis over the past 30 years; are you willing to allow him to kill another million?” Ms Kashi was born in Kuwait after her parents sought refuge from Saddam’s persecution. The family had to flee to Britain when Saddam had the Kuwaitis deport Iraqi men to Baghdad. On the border he had those returning killed. She stated: “We were lucky. We made it safely to Britain. My father was lucky — his brother was caught trying to escape, and tortured. So here I am, 19 years later, never having set foot in the country of my parents.”

She attacked the West for its role in arming Saddam in the past, but she also called into question the motives of the peace movement. “Why is it now — at the very time that the Iraqi people are being given real hope, however slight and however precarious, that they can live in an Iraq that is free of the horrors partly described in this e-mail — that you deem it appropriate to voice your disillusions with America’s policy in Iraq?

“Do not use the Iraqi people as a pawn in your game for moral superiority — when you allow a monster like Saddam to rule for 30 years without so much as protesting against his rule.” She added: “Of course, it would be ideal if an invasion could be undertaken, not by, the Americans, but by, say, the Nelson Mandela International Peace Force. That’s not on offer. The Iraqi people cannot wait until such a force materialises.”

After listening to Mr Blair’s speech, more than a few anti-war delegates were persuaded of the need for military action. Among them was Claire Johnston, from the Lancaster and Wyre constituency: “I was really moved by Tony Blair’s speech. I am now slightly ashamed of myself for feeling the way I did before.”

However, Ann Black, a member of Labour’s National Executive Committee, said: “I still don’t think there is a case for war. But I believe Tony Blair believes every word he says, and it scares me.

“You can’t argue with an evangelist. It is belief rather than reason with him.”

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Science News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Everyone will get vaccine against swine flu
• Artificial sperm and the race to build a baby
• BBC jets out stars to tout for prizes