Seconder of Motion 1 on Crisis in Iraq

Speech by Margaret Marshall delivered to Alliance Party Conference 2003 on Sat 8th Mar 2003

Alliance supports international law and the United Nations. Any war against Iraq must be authorised by the United Nations Security Council and after the UN weapons inspectors have found that there are weapons of mass destruction likely to be used against the rest of the world.

In the previous Gulf War, Iraq invaded Kuwait, so war was justified to free a country under attack. But the Americans did not succeed in deposing Saddam Hussein.

Saddam Hussein is a brutal dictator, but surely he can be removed without killing innocent people causing huge destruction to the country and involving the huge cost of modern warfare?

In the past, America has supported brutal dictators like Pinochet in Chile, just because he was anti-Communist. The Vietnam war did dreadful damage to Vietnam and involved great loss to the American people, but Vietnam - still a community country - is now part of the tourist trail and acceptable.

The Americans armed the Taleban in Afghanistan because they were fighting the Russians. The war in Afghanistan did not succeed in capturing Osama bin Laden and not enough thought was given to the aftermath and the costs of reconstructing the country. The warlords there are again vying with each other.

Any attack on Iraq will destabilise the Arab world and will encourage many moderate Muslims to become fundamentalist and anti-Western world terrorists. The threat from Al Qaeda will increase.

The Prime Minister appears to be supporting President Bush without the agreement of most of the country and of our partners in Europe. Money that is not available for health, education and pensions seems to be readily available for our weapons of mass destruction.

I am afraid every time I see or hear Bush he seems to be looking and sounding more and more like Michael Crawford in 'Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em' and yet he has the power to destabilise the world.