Mr. Speaker, I will go on to a few other points. I said that in all sincerity. I think the United States is a great friend of Canada, a great trading partner. We want to keep that relationship. Members should be mindful of their comments. Yes, we are a sovereign country and it is up to us to make that decision as to whether we get involved.
I personally believe that Saddam Hussein is on the shortest possible rope that anyone could possibly imagine. That crazy madman cannot be left to continue developing weapons of mass destruction.
I want to talk about a couple of other issues I heard throughout the debate tonight. We heard many members talk about the thousands of Iraqi children who are dying. Some of them went on to even blame this on the United States. That is ridiculous.
I remind all of those members that although Iraq continues to face sanctions, the UN has approved an oil for food program through which the Iraqi government generates $6 billion a year in revenue, which must be used for the purchase of food, medicine and other humanitarian aid.
As was recently reported in the Washington Post and many other international journals around the world, the non-profit group the Coalition for International Justice has released a study confirming that Iraq's government routinely subverts this program for its own purposes.
It is not Britain. It is not Germany. It is not the United States. It is Saddam Hussein who has murdered thousands and thousands of his own people for his own interests.
This year Saddam Hussein will divert over $2 billion away from his own people who are starving and need medicine and purely direct that money to the rebuilding of the military and paying off his potential rivals. There are other reports that he has over $1 billion from illegal oil sales.
This is a madman. This is Saddam Hussein. This is a man we have to take very seriously.
If we can avoid a war, we should do that. If enough pressure can be put by a combined coalition to actually force him to allow the weapons inspectors back in into areas that we have very serious concerns about, into some of Saddam Hussein's palaces where it is believed he is storing some of these weapons, if we can get in there to destroy those weapons, that is a very large if. If he actually complies this time and again we are very skeptical on his past record, then we should avoid this conflict. It has to be done under a UN sanction.
We cannot be naive and allow this man to absolutely have no respect for the international community, no respect for the United Nations. To continually make a mockery of them will be at our own peril.
This is a very important topic. I remind all members that we are a sovereign nation. Yes, this is a decision we should make. I would like members to remember that it is not the United States that caused this problem. We have heard so much anti-American sentiment. It is deeply disturbing. Saddam Hussein is a crazy madman who must be stopped. He cannot be given any more chances.