John Minihan (Progressive Democrats)

——himself a victim of torture, and his fellow legislators, who are currently engaged in a bitter struggle with the White House to prohibit cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of persons in the detention of the US Government. I wish to quote from Senator McCain, who is far more eloquent on the subject of terrorism and torture than I could ever be:

The enemy we fight has no respect for human life or human rights. They do not deserve our sympathy. But this is not about who they are. This is about who we are. These are the values that distinguish us from our enemies, and we can never, never allow our enemies to take those values away.

Turning again to Iraq itself and the use of phosphorus and the discovery of tortured detainees in an Iraqi Interior ministry building, the use of extemporised phosphorus munitions against insurgent units in civilian areas of Falluja must be condemned out of hand, as should the detention in the Iraqi Interior ministry building some 170 Sunni detainees. However, we must retain our focus. There is a growing campaign in Britain and the United States to bring home the troops. Despite daily bombings aimed at inciting civil war, discouraging Iraqis from joining the security forces and stifling the political process, the insurgents have not won. To prematurely bring home troops would be to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.