Madam Speaker, the hon. gentleman said that a multilateral body such as the United Nations should be the only body to dismantle regimes of tyrants.
My question to him is what if the UN fails to act, as in the case of Cambodia, the case of Rwanda, the case of Uganda and the case even of the former Yugoslavia? What if the UN fails to act? Is he suggesting that NATO was not justified in going into the former Yugoslavia, as per the advice of the United Kingdom, as per the advice of the Czech president, Vaclav Havel? Is he suggesting that NATO was not justified in that activity? What is he suggesting we do as moral citizens of this world if the United Nations does not act, which it has not done in many instances in the past?
The member quoted a document that the minister passed out, and he kindly passed me the same document. This person does not want the U.S. to have a military intervention into Iraq. What this person is suggesting, this former diplomat from Canada, should happen is:
Another course of action is available. The UN should take Baghdad on its word, the absence of any weapons of mass destruction has been asserted. And the promise of unfettered inspections has been made. In case limitations are imposed or an exception is made in future for whatever reason, this should be construed as an indication that there is something to hide. Any site--whether a palace or a school, a field hospital or a mosque--whereto access is obstructed or denied will be deemed to conceal military facilities, include industrial compounds or camouflage stockpiles of missiles and/or weapons. No need for inspection: the site will be destroyed. A raid of aircraft capable of night vision and precision guided bombing will do the job. Once the site is reduced to rubble, the inspection team should be allowed to examine this “ground zero” unless there still is some activity underground. New raids will follow until the team is satisfied that no threatening activity is unaccounted for.
That is what this former diplomat is suggesting. Instead of the U.S., the United Kingdom, Australia and others operating in an action against Iraq, is this what the member is suggesting the Americans and the others do in Iraq?