Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The UN High Commission for Refugees report was published today. It shows that in 2012, an estimated 7.6 million people were newly displaced because of conflict or persecution, the highest number in 24 years. More than 45 million people have been forcibly displaced throughout the world. These are frightening figures. In the Middle East alone in 2012, Afghanistan saw a displacement of 2.5 million, Iraq had in the region of 750,000 and Syria had 750,000.

There is little doubt that war is the main cause of displacement worldwide. Sadly, the role played by the United States in the Middle East has been detrimental to very many people. There is not only the war going on in Afghanistan and Iraq, but of late we have seen the most modern form of war at work in the use of drones, which is terrorising people. The notion that President Obama might regularly go through a kill list of Muslims he intends to eliminate, without any judicial process and with no more identification supplied than the word of a dodgy spy on the ground, is terrifying. I do not know how anybody can see justification for this behaviour. By all accounts, the only way to measure the success of drones is in body count.

Every parent can connect with what President Obama said about the murder of 20 children in Newtown, Connecticut. It must follow that what applies to the children murdered in Newtown by a deranged young man also applies to the children murdered in Pakistan by a sombre American President. The latter children are just as important and deserving of our concern. It is disappointing that the issue appears not to have been raised with the Obamas when they visited Ireland this week.

See this speech in context