Tom Clonan (Independent)
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This is a hypothetical question. What would happen if the UN Security Council Resolution 1701 was not renewed on Lebanon? That resolution allows the Israelis and Hezbollah to give consent for UN peacekeeping forces to be there. I was there when that consent was given. I do not want to say this; I was in command of Irish troops under fire. I had that privilege. We repeatedly and consistently came under direct fire over months. In that period of time, as the Israeli fire bracketed onto us, the ground and our vehicles were shaking, the 0.5 rounds were slapping off the armour. In thinking of the civilians in the houses in the villages around us, we provided the security when the Irish engineers dug into those houses with consaws and pulled out the bodies of small children and the elderly with their insides pulled-out of them; their little blue and pink intestines hanging out. That is what the Israelis did with the consent of the UN. I can tell you that if that mandate is not renewed, the Israelis will manoeuvre north and slaughter everybody in their path. In that context, if we did not abide by the triple lock and let our young men and women into that situation, do you think it would be worth it? Do you think we could prevent that when the world powers and leaders need to step up to the plate and do what they are mandated to do? I am sorry to use that sort of language here but what we are discussing is so important. For those of you who have never heard a shot fired in anger, who have never experienced it or seen it first at hand; what we are committing our young men and women to, our children and grandchildren, is something that I think is thankfully outside the experience of most people here.