Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail)

Those of us who work in Dublin will be familiar with the posters put up around this city on a regular basis by the Socialist Party calling for a public meeting outside the GPO about some issue or another. To my knowledge I have not seen one poster over the past ten to 15 years calling on the people of Ireland to protest publicly against the human rights abuses of the Saddam Hussein regime and what is happening in Iraq.

What is emerging from Iraq, apart from the knowledge we have gained over the years about its murderous regime, would turn one's stomach. Only yesterday on radio an Iraqi citizen talked about Tariq Aziz who, in order to prove his loyalty to Saddam Hussein, personally executed one of his opponents. Tony Blair, in his speech on Tuesday in the House of Commons, referred to a man who in recent weeks had spoken out publicly against the Saddam Hussein regime. He was strung up on a lamp post in a street in civilised Baghdad where he had his tongue cut out, was mutilated and allowed to bleed to death.

Sadly, there is no morality when it comes to foreign policy issues but we aspire towards morality. President Carter was elected in 1977 on the basis of a moral foreign policy. He put human rights issues to the forefront of American foreign policy. It appears to be a different age now when one considers what has happened since, yet I do not believe his people fully appreciated him. He found it extremely difficult to pursue that policy in office.