Lyn Allison (Victoria, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

After four years of mayhem and bloodshed, the time has now come for a new strategy on Iraq. Mr Downer said this morning that we should give the surge—that is, the extra 20,000 American troops going to Iraq—a chance. Mr Howard says that this is now a fight against terrorists and will no doubt say tonight that we must stay the course until the job is done. What they do not say is that the fight has been a miserable, terrible strategic failure. The war on Saddam Hussein was won four years ago by military might and by destroying most of Iraq’s infrastructure and at least 60,000 of its citizens. But the war between longstanding Sunni and Shia enemies and against the occupation cannot be quelled by the military might of the United States and the rest of the coalition by greater fortification of the green zone or by training more Iraqi troops in methods of suppression. Like the so-called war on terror, there is no clearly defined enemy. Civilians are the biggest losers and the conflict is complex and ideological. Iraqis who welcomed Saddam Hussein’s demise now say this occupation is far more repressive.

Australia and the rest of the coalition misjudged this war in Iraq from the start. There were no weapons of mass destruction. Iraq was no threat to any other country, much less Australia. The UN did not give its sanction. The Australian parliament was not part of the decision. They also took no account of the internal forces that would be unleashed. There was and still is no exit strategy. The surge of 30,000 more soldiers will not work while the morgues are full in Baghdad and the hospitals are overflowing with people injured in the violence. Prisons are overflowing with insurgents. It will not work while the two million Iraqis who fled Iraq and who are trying to survive in Syria and Jordan remain there. At the present time 50,000 people every month are leaving Iraq.

The United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq says that 15 million Iraqis are now considered extremely vulnerable. Four million people depend on food assistance and only 60 per cent have access to the public food distribution system, 80 per cent do not have sanitation, 70 per cent have no water, 50 per cent are unemployed and 23 per cent of children are chronically malnourished. There is relentless insecurity and poverty in Iraq. Senior US military officers admitted last week that they were not able to stop what they described as ‘smart, agile and cunning’ insurgents from destroying heavily armoured vehicles and aircraft.

The people of Iraq remember the abuses at Abu Ghraib. Iraqis did not approve of their parliament recently handing long-term control of Iraq’s oil to foreign multinational oil companies. They see the Iraqi government as a puppet of the United States. According to the Pentagon’s latest report, Measuring stability and security in Iraq, the level of violence has reached the highest on record. Attacks on coalition forces as well as civilians rose to almost 1,000 a week. The military tactics of the 200,000 or so occupying forces for repressing the violence are not stopping that violence. This new war cannot be won by shooting more people.

The government talks about staying the course until the war is won. But the Prime Minister does not say what winning means or how long it will take. Military experts here and elsewhere say that this war is exacerbated by our presence, and the Iraqis also say they want us out. So just what should the new strategy be? Firstly, we say that Iraqis must be given a time frame for troop withdrawal, at least by the end of the year, Australian troops should come home at the end of their current tours of duty and control of the country must be handed over to the Iraqis.

Secondly, Iraq’s sectoral leaders and neighbouring countries such as Iran and Syria must be invited to the table and they must be invited by the United Nations. Agreement has to be reached on a way forward for Iraq. This should then be put to the Iraqi people. Thirdly, the United Nations should be brought into the reconstruction effort and many more countries around the world should participate. Iraq needs hospitals, it needs power supplies, it needs water, it needs sanitation, it needs food, it needs schools, it needs housing—and it needs much more. That will be a massive undertaking, but it will probably be a lot cheaper than what the occupation has cost. A report in the Australian the other day suggested that so far $3 billion has been spent by Australia on this war, including debts waived against Iraq.

Fourthly, the broader Middle East is part of this regional strife and a peaceful, fair, two-state solution must be found for Palestine and Israel. Fifthly, Australia must make its own decisions and it must engage with the United States in a much more robust manner on Iraq. And it should engage in that sense with Britain as well. Finally, Australia must never again attack another country without the support of the United Nations and the Australian parliament, and our law in this country should reflect that. The Democrats have in fact tabled a bill in parliament that would require Australia to seek the approval of the whole parliament before ever again attacking another country.