Labhrás Ó Murchú (Fianna Fail)

When opportunities arise, we often ask the Government to take an independent stand. Just because one is a member of a particular forum, whether it is the European Union or the United Nations, one does not have to toe the line completely. We saw that during the invasion of Iraq. I can still recall watching that invasion on television as if we were watching a movie, forgetting that people on the receiving end of that indiscriminate bombing were being killed in their thousands. From day one, I made the point on the Order of Business that, first, I did not accept that the invasion of Iraq was justified because certain countries went against the will and procedure of the United Nations and, second, there was absolutely no respect whatsoever for human life. We were able to see the embedded journalists in Iraq telling us what suited the powers that be, but we were never told about the suffering of men, women and children. The number of people who have been indiscriminately killed has run into hundreds of thousands.