Ann Ormonde (Fianna Fail)

I will be brief because we are running out of time. I wish to share my time with Senator Kitt and Senator Leyden.

When the invasion of Iraq began, I was one of those who advocated it. At dinner tables I spoke at length to many people who were against the invasion of Iraq, but I have come full circle in my thinking on it. I am so disappointed with the United States Administration. It has lost my confidence and I believe it has lost the confidence of every man and woman in the western world. I do not know how we will get out of this situation. After the horrific pictures that appeared on our television screens over the past few months, how could anybody trust the United Stated with the peace process and the transfer of sovereignty in Iraq? I do not believe a solution can be found. I only hope the United Nations can come in and not be hijacked again by America. I hope it can find a resolution to this situation because that is our only hope. I ask the Minister of State to disinvolve America and the political strategists who hijacked this issue and got nothing out of it. We do not have thinkers at that level, and I am happy to put that on record.

I am against what is happening in Iraq. We are now replacing one tyranny with another. That is the result of putting in place an administration which never thought through this process. The pictures of the beheading of a man in the past week made me sick and I am sure every man and woman on this side of the world felt the same. I will be saying at every opportunity available to me that I am very disappointed with America.