Iraq Eve of Battle Speech

I was asked to talk about Colonel Tim Collins' speech before the eve of the Iraq war on Three Counties Radio yesterday. They were talking about it because Kenneth Branagh re-enacts it in the drama Ten Days to War, broadcast this week.
(See Branagh's performance here)

Click here to read the text of the original speech.

It's a brilliant address. That it was delivered off the cuff, does not mean that he didn't do a lot of preparation. Maybe war focuses the mind beautifully. It was a Daily Mail reporter who immortalised it through her shorthand notes.

It's got short words and short sentences, lots of rhetorical threes and contrasts. I read that Collins was a big fan of Branagh's Henry V speech. There's definitely a bit of Shakespeare and the Bible in there.