Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 12 Hansard (13 November) . . Page.. 3556 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

moved in, which the French had every right to do under the Versailles Treaty. The French did not. They were in an appeasing mode. The Germans felt emboldened by that, and the rest is history.

Comrade Lenin said, "Push out a bayonet. If it strikes fat, push further. If it strikes steel pull back for another day."

They were two regimes which were quite happy to be bullies and to push things to the limit. If you appeased them, they would take a bite and then want another, bigger bite. When you are dealing with vicious, nasty regimes, there does come a time when you have to stand up to them; otherwise, we will go back to the Dark Ages.

Terrorism is something you cannot appease. No-one has said this so far in this debate, and that is good, but a number of letters to the editor have said that Australia should not be supporting the West or any moves against Iraq, as that would make us an open target for terrorists.

I read an interesting article recently, "They Want to Kill Us All", by Mark Steyn in The Spectator, a British magazine. Someone said the French had paid a price for their initial support for Mr Bush. Eleven French submarine technicians in Karachi were killed in a suicide attack not all that long ago on a French oil tanker off the coast of Yemen. They said that it now seems to be the turn of Australia.

There is a great fallacy there, because it seems that the French support for Mr Bush was very brief. The article said:

The French were supportive for about ten minutes after 11 September, but for most of the last year have been famously and publicly non-supportive: throughout the spring, their foreign minister ... was deploring the American [attitude] on a daily basis. The French veto is still Saddam's best shot at torpedoing any meaningful UN action on Iraq. If you were to pick one Western nation not to blow up the oil tankers of [or kill the citizens of] the French would be it.

But they got blown up anyway. And afterwards a spokesman for the Islamic Army of Aden said, 'We would have preferred to hit a US frigate, but no problems because they're all infidels.'

A former leader of Hezbollah, when asked, "Why are you fighting us?"replied, "We are not fighting so that you will offer us something. We are fighting to eliminate you."Those are the views of absolute extremists, by no means the views of the vast majority of people in the Muslim world.

Many people will benefit if Hussein pulls back from the brink and allows inspectors in. If he does not, if he absolutely refuses to let them in and armed force has to be used, then so be it. If that unfortunate situation eventuates, I hope that a much better Iraq and a much better deal for the average Iraqi citizen will eventuate.

Australia is a foundation member of the United Nations. We are a member of the Western alliance. As I said, sadly there have always been wars.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .