Mr. Speaker, like all members in this place, I agree that the decision to use military force should not be taken lightly. War is serious. If we engage in one, we must understand in advance that no matter how many precautions we take, innocent lives will be lost. Canadian soldiers may be killed. We owe it to ourselves to try to make the peace process work. We also owe it to ourselves to stand up against tyranny in the world. It is not an easy balance.
The Iraqi government has a long history of subverting our good intentions and we cannot allow this to happen again. Less than a week after agreeing to the return of the weapons inspectors, Iraq sent signals to the contrary. The member talked about the weapons inspectors. They were not kicked out; they left. Exactly the opposite is happening now.
To expect the world will be a more secure place by appeasing Iraq by continuing to spin in diplomatic circles and by allowing Iraq to make a mockery of the UN security resolutions is just not plausible. We have to stand up to Iraq. At some point in time we have to say that enough is enough.
Does the member not agree that at some point we have to stand up to defend the people and join with our allies and that we may have to go to war? We cannot pretend that we can reach into a magic bottle and that peace will happen. If it is not there and Iraq continues to make a mockery of the UN, does she not agree that we should then stand with our allies?