Locke Keith: General Debate 
Locke Keith: General Debate 
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KEITH LOCKE (Green) 
: 
 I want to talk today about the Iraq war. There has been an odd silence on this issue particularly given its great importance not only for Iraqis who are being killed and tortured in large numbers and having their homes destroyed but also for the world if we want peace and adherence to international law. 
Daily media attention is given to the killings the torture and the mayhem in Iraq. But unfortunately there is now silence from our Government as Tony Blair visits this country. I think these last couple of days were a golden opportunity for Helen Clark to say a few home truths to the British Prime Minister. If we are true friends of Britain as the Green Party is—as our Government is I hope—then we should be able not only to talk about trade but to talk about important issues like the Iraq war about which we strongly disagree. In doing so we will be strengthening relations with Britain because the overwhelming majority of British people did not want this war still oppose this war and want the British troops to be brought home. Tony Blair is standing out against the popular will in Britain as George Bush is standing out against the popular will of the American people. 
The war is clearly wrong and I want to indicate some of the lessons that could be taught to Tony Blair by our Prime Minister. I tried to convey these lessons to Tony Blair yesterday. I passed him an open letter that was signed not only by myself but by Marion Hancock Director of the Foundation for Peace Studies Aotearoa / New Zealand; Laila Harré National Secretary of the National Distribution Union; Edwina Hughes Coordinator of Peace Movement Aotearoa; and the President and the Vice-president of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom Joan Macdonald and Megan Hutchings. In the letter we explained why it was important that the British Government withdraw its troops from Iraq. 
I will go over some of the lessons that our Prime Minister should be conveying to Tony Blair on this day. The first lesson is that politicians should tell the truth and not pretend there are weapons of mass destruction in a place like Iraq when they know there are not. It is interesting that this week a leaked memo was published in the  
New York Times 
 that described a meeting between Tony Blair and George Bush on 31 January 2003—prior to the invasion—where they agreed that the war would proceed whether or not weapons of mass destruction were in Iraq. George Bush told Tony Blair that perhaps they should provoke a war. One of his suggestions in this official memo was to paint a US surveillance plane in UN colours and to provoke an attack so that the war could start. 
The second lesson is that we should not violate international law. Elizabeth Wilmshurst who was the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Deputy Legal Adviser advised prior to the invasion that the unlawful use of military force on such a scale amounted to a crime of aggression. Yet the British Government and Tony Blair took no notice. 
The third lesson is that although nobody—particularly the Iraqi people—has any love for the deposed dictator Saddam Hussein no country likes to be subjected to a military occupation particularly a prolonged one. The fourth lesson is that when outside nations impose their will on another country it disrupts the process of nation-building. The memo that was in the  
New York Times 
 stated Tony Blair and George Bush thought that if the invasion took place in Iraq it was “unlikely there would be internecine warfare between the different religious and ethnic groups.”—and we all know how wrong that statement is. 
The fifth lesson that could be conveyed to Tony Blair is that the British and American forces cannot win. Their presence in Iraq only makes things worse and we saw even in this morning’s  
New Zealand Herald  
how more and more of the country is going out of those forces’ control. The headline of the article in the  
New Zealand Herald 
 states: “British soldiers sidelined as Basra crime gangs tighten grip on police force” and that is what happens when there is an occupation force. It produces only mayhem. 
The sixth lesson is that the violation of human rights by occupation forces is unacceptable. Violations by British troops have taken place and there have been numerous instances of that happening. Ben Griffin a member of the British SAS recently departed the force for that reason.