Joe Higgins (Dublin West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

The monstrous atrocities in Paris at the end of 2015 revolted the vast majority of humanity, including people in the Moslem world. It is vital to understand that, given that the perpetrators claim to act in the name of Allah, the god of those who believe in Islam. Does the Taoiseach agree, nevertheless, that one has to put the horror now unfolding in the Middle East, and all the consequences that follow around the world, in the context of the legacy of intervention in the Middle East by major imperial powers, from both east and west, historically over centuries? They jockeyed for power and stole resources from people in the region.

Would the Taoiseach also agree that one must factor in more recent interventions in the past 20 years, particularly by western powers, and now Russia as well? I am speaking in particular about the criminal invasion of Iraq, as a major factor that has unleashed forces that are wreaking havoc, particularly on ordinary, poor, working people in the Middle East, including Iraq, Syria and other areas.

The Fianna Fáil leader has a brass neck to lecture some of us here, as if we were putting forward some kind of justification for the atrocities in Paris, because we seek to explain what creates such politically crazed individuals who can carry out atrocities like that. The leader of Fianna Fáil himself carries responsibility by virtue of his presence in the Government of Mr. Bertie Ahern who, in 2003, supported the invasion of Iraq. On many occasions in this House, he gave credence to the lies that were being put abroad internationally about weapons of mass destruction. He then gave logistical support to that criminal invasion by the US army by virtue of allowing it to use Shannon Airport. He therefore carries some responsibility for this horror.

Would the Taoiseach agree that these disastrous interventions have created the basis for the reactionary forces of ISIS? The unfortunate situation is that a medievalist and barbaric world view can get an echo among a people seriously alienated by the actions of western powers, as well as Russia. When an atrocity like that in Paris occurs, it is world news.

It is massively denounced but is the Taoiseach aware that, on a weekly basis, innocent men, women and children are being killed by drones sent in by the US and other powers and are unmourned and unreported and that this creates a basis of support for some of the forces at play?

Closer to home, is it not a real condemnation of the EU that the mass unemployment of 25 million or 26 million people that has been endemic for many years and the marginalisation and alienation this creates in communities in major cities such as Brussels, Paris and elsewhere throws up people who can carry out such horrific attacks as were perpetrated during the Paris massacre? Those to whom I refer are so embittered and alienated that they look to reactionary forces such as ISIS as some way to lash back not just at intervention in the Middle East but also at what their own governments are imposing on society, particularly in recent years, in the context of mass austerity.

Does the Taoiseach agree that the lesson is that interference in the Middle East should cease forthwith? Does he agree that Russia, the US, Great Britain and the rest should get out and allow the people of the Middle East deal with kleptocrats within their societies who have seized power and who routinely steal from their people by means of their corrupt regimes? This would be done on the basis of the people being empowered to take ownership of their wealth, rather than it going to multinational oil companies, and to use their countries' fabulous resources to create prosperity for themselves. Is this not really the basis on which peace can be created, namely, by developing a society in which there is no poverty, hunger or oppression and, very importantly, where there is political and religious freedom? That is the basis on which this horror can be resolved. Unfortunately, Western powers have nothing to contribute. In fact, they have contributed to the existing horror and will continue to do so if they proceed to intervene and interfere in the way they have done to date.

See this speech in context