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"Now, Senator, I gave my heart and soul to oppose the policy that you promoted. I gave my political life's blood to try to stop the mass killing of Iraqis by the sanctions on Iraq which killed one million Iraqis, most of them children, most of them died before they even knew that they were Iraqis, but they died for no other reason other than that they were Iraqis with the misfortune to born at that time. I gave my heart and soul to stop you committing the disaster that you did commit in invading Iraq. And I told the world that your case for the war was a pack of lies.
"I told the world that Iraq, contrary to your claims did not have weapons of mass destruction. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to al-Qaeda. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that Iraq had no connection to the atrocity on 9/11 2001. I told the world, contrary to your claims, that the Iraqi people would resist a British and American invasion of their country and that the fall of Baghdad would not be the beginning of the end, but merely the end of the beginning.
"Senator, in everything I said about Iraq, I turned out to be right and you turned out to be wrong and 100,000 people paid with their lives; 1600 of them American soldiers sent to their deaths on a pack of lies; 15,000 of them wounded, many of them disabled forever on a pack of lies.
"If the world had listened to Kofi Annan, whose dismissal you demanded, if the world had listened to President Chirac who you want to paint as some kind of corrupt traitor, if the world had listened to me and the anti-war movement in Britain, we would not be in the disaster that we are in today. Senator, this is the mother of all smokescreens. You are trying to divert attention from the crimes that you supported, from the theft of billions of dollars of Iraq's wealth.
"Have a look at the real Oil-for-Food scandal. Have a look at the 14 months you were in charge of Baghdad, the first 14 months when $8.8 billion of Iraq's wealth went missing on your watch. Have a look at Halliburton and other American corporations that stole not only Iraq's money, but the money of the American taxpayer. [...]"
-- George Galloway, responding to US Senators who accused him of corruption, 2005-05-17
(no subject)
Wow
(no subject)
I am certain he isn't refering to all the money Hussan spent during that time building 7 new palaces for himself or paying off people well like himself. If you have enough money to build seven new huge gold decorated palaces why can you not feed you own people? Sorry logic does not apply in his judgements.
"If the world had listened to Kofi Annan, whose dismissal you demanded, if the world had listened to President Chirac who you want to paint as some kind of corrupt traitor, if the world had listened to me and the anti-war movement in Britain, we would not be in the disaster that we are in today."
Instead we would be happly watching as more Iraqs are starved and murdered while the bathist party enriched themselves even more and they restarted the chemical and biological weapons programs that they themselve said they would start over after the sactions you wanted to lift were lifted.
(no subject)
we waged war on Iraq for all the wrong reasons, and the fact that some good may eventually come of it -- and precious little has so far -- does not excuse that fact. we went in without a plan, and now we're stuck there -- unable to leave, but unable to win.
any sane person is glad that Saddam Hussein is out of power. no one is disputing that it's a good thing. but the way we went about it was deplorable, and the reputation of the US has been so badly tarnished by the actions of the current administration that we've lost most of the international support we once had. as an American whose ancestors fought honorably in every American war in history including the Revolution, whose roots extend back to the very first European settlers, i've never been so ashamed to be an American. glad, yes. i'm always glad to be an American, and i'm entirely conscious of how fortunate i am to have grown up in this country.
but right now i can't be proud of it.