Mr. Speaker, I have noticed that the member for Lakeland has a great regard for consistency in international affairs. I wonder if he could help me out with a few problems I have concerning the United States in that regard.
I start with Iraq which, Donald Rumsfeld told us the other day, through Congress, was such an evil country during the war with Iran that clearly this was proof that the United States had to act. He is the person who ought to know because he was Ronald Reagan's personal emissary to Saddam Hussein in 1983 to support Iraq in its war against Iran. I want help on that bit of consistency.
I want help on Osama bin Laden. In the 1980s the United States supported the Mujahedeen against the Russians; the Mujahedeen morphed into the Taliban, and we know where that led. I would like some help on that consistency.
I would like help, finally, on the consistency issue of this past year when we started out, from September to December, with a war on terrorism and by January we were attacking a totally different set of players called the “axis of evil”, which started out as three and is now six.
Could the member help me with the consistency with regard to American foreign policy over the past 20 years, please?