Iraq, weapons claims and the invasion
Joe Higgins challenged the Taoiseach over the absence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, asking whether he would apologize for misleading the Dáil and condemning the invasion’s consequences. The Taoiseach refused to apologize, defended the Government’s support for UN action and the removal of Saddam Hussein, and said inspections should resume in Iraq.
Even he could not possibly remember the rigmarole he goes through every morning to avoid answering questions. Let us hope I have better luck.
The United States Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, admitted yesterday that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. They were destroyed before the invasion. This is the same person who revelled like a psychopath in his strategy of shock and awe as the entire infrastructure of a nation was blown to rubble by US and British bombs. This is the same person who, with President Bush, dictated that thousands of Iraqis would be slaughtered, children blown from their beds and civilians ripped to shreds by cluster bombs, allegedly because Iraq had weapons of mass destruction which posed a threat to the world.
What does the Taoiseach say to this devastating admission and to a devastated Iraq and Ali Ismail Abbas, the 12 year old boy who moved the world as his limbs were battered by US bombs, allegedly to remove weapons of mass destruction? I ask this of the Taoiseach because the Government should give an explanation.
On 20 March last the Taoiseach moved a motion in the House condemning the refusal of the Government of Iraq to comply with its obligations to disarm under numerous resolutions. Now we see that the motion and the speeches of the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste were moved on foot of a falsehood perpetrated by the United States Administration which the Taoiseach accepted. On foot of that falsehood, the Taoiseach facilitated the invasion of Iraq through the use of Shannon Airport.
The Parliament and the people were misled. What will the Taoiseach do about it? Will he as a minimum ask the United States ambassador for an explanation? Will the Taoiseach demand an emergency United Nations discussion on the matter?
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Will he demand that Messrs Bush and Blair be impeached for a three week long war crime? Will the Taoiseach finally apologise for the fact that, inadvertently or otherwise, he misled the Dáil and the people by giving credence to a palpable falsehood?
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I stated yesterday in reply to a parliamentary question that under the new UN resolution, I look forward to both the International Atomic Energy Association and UNMOVIC being sent back to Iraq. Whatever about what they will find ultimately or whatever history will say about the location of the weapons of mass destruction during last March, I make no apology for anything I said, especially given that 14,000 victims were killed in one village on one day by Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction.
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When some of us were condemning Saddam some in the Government were supporting him and selling him beef.
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I will ask it tomorrow and straighter than the Minister answers questions about health.
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—who was responsible for killing thousands of his own people and using torture against people and who engaged in significant activity against his own population. Deputy Joe Higgins asked me if I would apologise to the House for supporting the UN resolution, playing a key role on the Security Council and doing all we could to help. I am proud of the actions we took in supporting the UN Security Council and anything else we did in this regard.
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If the Taoiseach were around in the days of William Butler Yeats, I would say he was the inspiration for his Song of the Wandering Aengus because he takes us around the issues but does not answer the question. Unfortunately, millions of innocent people throughout the world have been the victims of horrific dictators—
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—many of whom were supported by US Governments over the years. That is a crime. Unfortunately, some of the innocent victims of Saddam Hussein were killed by people doing so on the strength of Fianna Fáil beef—
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—including that sold by Ministers of the party who did business with the beast of Baghdad.
Does the Taoiseach see any irony in the fact that one of the effects of this invasion is to have removed from safe-keeping in Iraq radioactive materials that could be used in a devastating attack against civilians in future? Far from making the world safer, it makes it less stable. The Taoiseach did not answer my question. We will have to keep coming back to it and the Tánaiste may have to answer it.
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Does the Taoiseach mind, that as leader of this country, he repeated a falsehood given to him by his friends in the United States? Does he mind that he misled the people? Does he mind that his policy was dictated on the strength of a falsehood? Does he not think that this at least merits an explanation to the Dáil and the people?
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For Deputy Higgins's information, I had the pleasure once again last night of meeting W.B. Yeats's son Michael Yeats. I do not think he was upset about any of the things the Deputy is upset about.
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The trouble is the same issue of dictatorship. The Deputy wants to dictate and wants me to accept it. He is selective about what dictator he follows. The reality is that the Government has supported the UN decisions and has supported its work throughout – and we played a significant role in it. We are glad to see the UN is back into position. UNMOVIC and IEA will, I hope, be back in Iraq in a short period of time. Let us be frank, any role we might have played was small, and we are not going to apologise for any small role we might have played in helping to remove a dictator who had made his people suffer for 20 years, carried out horrific acts and did not care about democracy or anything he did against his people. He is gone now and thank God for that.