Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The original invasion of Iraq in 1991 led to the death of more than 1 million people. It was horrific. Not happy with bombing the country, the US bullied the UN into introducing sanctions of such severity that Denis Halliday, who was in charge of the UN's humanitarian campaign, resigned on the grounds that his programme was complicit in genocide. The US invaded Iraq again in 2003, with Irish support. We were part of the coalition of the willing. Bertie Ahern told us we were not really participating but we allowed Shannon to be used by the US while it killed another 700,000 civilians in Iraq between 2003 and 2011. During his term of office, Barack Obama has bombed seven, predominantly Muslim, countries. This is a man who won the peace prize because he promised to put an end to the nuclear arms race. He cannot even get Israel to sign up to non-proliferation agreements. He has now agreed to expand the nuclear arms race again.

Blair and Bush are guilty of war crimes. Obama is guilty of war crimes. Putin is guilty of war crimes. Assad and Netanyahu are guilty of war crimes. We take sides. They are all bad people who have caused unmitigated disasters around the planet. We should not take any side. I have no respect for any of these people but we are getting involved, and we are not neutral. How can the Taoiseach give out about Russia's breaches of international law without bringing a balance to the issue? He was over in New York kissing Obama's backside and there was not a word about the fact that the man is guilty of war crimes. Where is the balance?

It breaks my heart that we cannot stay out of these matters and take a neutral position of working for peace. The arms race and the militarisation of the planet is causing untold disaster for millions of people. Old people, women and child suffer the most because they occupy most of the buildings that are destroyed by bombs. Able bodied men are not usually in the buildings when the bombs drop on them. Women, children and the elderly are the ones who most commonly die. It is crazy. I urge the Minister of State to bring balance to these matters by restoring our neutrality.

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