Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

Over 100 missiles rained down on Syria from the US, France and Britain. Our Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade says he can understand why the airstrikes were launched. Instead of understanding the actions of Donald Trump, Theresa May and Emmanuel Macron, does the Minister not think we should have had condemnation of this military action which ratchets up tension across the world and brings us closer to a new world war? We know that neutrality has never been a reality in this State but it has rarely been so blatantly flouted repeatedly by our Government. It is only weeks since we had the expulsion of diplomats on the say-so of unpublished British intelligence. It is only months since the Government signed Ireland up for the European military alliance, permanent structured co-operation, PESCO, and now it is giving implicit support to western imperialist intervention in the Middle East. Does the Government not agree that the use of Shannon Airport and the support that represents for US military action abroad has to be ended by the US military? Can the Minister even give a commitment that Shannon will not be used for the US military either going to or coming from Syria? We know what the pretext of the attack was: an abhorrent chemical attack in eastern Ghouta which has been blamed on Assad. Is Assad capable of such an act? Absolutely. That corrupt regime has defended itself through rivers of innocent people's blood repeatedly.

No evidence has been presented. We are expected just to accept what has been put forward. The question that has to be asked is why it would launch a chemical attack now, giving a reason for western imperialism to intervene. Everybody should remember that it is just over 15 years since the dodgy dossier about weapons of mass destruction was used to justify going to war in Iraq. The disaster is there, right across the region, for everybody to see and yet we are expected to believe them again. The use of it as a pretext for another imperialist intervention, regardless of who is responsible, should be rejected. I echo the points about the utter hypocrisy of these people, including Trump, May and Macron, all of whom recently rolled out the red carpet for the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, the architect in chief of the carnage and deliberate starvation in Yemen, where a child dies every ten minutes. They all celebrated the re-election of el-Sisi in Egypt and they gave a free pass to Israeli snipers gunning down unarmed Palestinians in Gaza. Imperialist intervention is a disaster. It has been a disaster, including both Russian and western imperialism. Instead, we need to build an international anti-war movement like we did 15 years ago to say hands off Syria, to stop the escalation of tension worldwide, to have no more airstrikes and to demand the withdrawal of all foreign forces.

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