Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

While I have no doubt about the bravery and good intentions of the Irish troops participating in the UNDOF mission, I think the time has come to pull them out. I do not think we should continue to participate in this mission, which is largely irrelevant in the current context. We should not be endangering the lives of Irish troops in the middle of an extremely dangerous mess that has been created as a consequence of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq. I refer to its cynical manipulations in Iraq, and now in Syria. I could say the same about Russia. Their manipulations in this area have created an absolute hornet's nest, the worst expression of which is obviously ISIS. These dangerous people are now overrunning parts of Iraq and Syria. This mess has resulted directly from the US invasion and occupation of Iraq. The US sponsored a sectarian government that used sectarian politics - divisions between Shia and Sunni Muslims - to fuel the growth of ISIS. This needs to be taken alongside the Western support of brutal autocratic regimes like Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which have been sponsoring certain armed elements to manipulate cynically the crisis in Syria. I should also refer to the extraordinary double standards when it comes to the treatment of Israel, which has been allowed to get away literally with the murder of Palestinian people in Gaza. All of the chickens of the West's hypocritical policy in the region are coming home to roost in the most dangerous and terrifying way with the rise of ISIS. Our troops should not be put in the middle of that dangerous cocktail.

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