Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left) | Oireachtas source

I would say it is a war mission. As the Minister said, it is true that the country has not seen normalisation for decades, but the roots of that situation lie in interference, including the overthrow of the government in the 1980s and the incitement and encouragement of jihadist forces by the United States even at that time. The Minister argues that Afghanistan might implode if the troops were to pull out, but I remind him that Afghanistan has imploded. The tribal leaders whom the Minister said would emerge to the top have done so and are doing very nicely out of the present conflict. It is the ordinary people who are suffering, without any protection whatsoever from the Western forces. In fact, the very presence of Western forces has given encouragement to those tribal gangs in the first place. I think it would be better if we pulled out. The fact that other countries are present does not give any cover or legitimacy to our concerns there. We are supposed to be a neutral country in our own right, dictated by peacekeeping missions. Everybody knows that the only reason there was interference in Afghanistan in the first place was not democracy or furthering the interests of people but, rather, the very rich and lucrative gas and petroleum supplies that lie in the Caspian Sea. It is a resource issue.

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