Tim Blair

SOCIALISTS TOLD

Kurdish leader Barham Salih addresses a socialist conference in Madrid:

Removal of Saddam tyranny was a seminal event in the history of the Iraq, and the Middle East. Most Iraqis see the moral and political imperative for the war of liberation as overwhelming. For many of us inside Iraq, who experienced first hand Saddam’s WMDs, the debate about lack of evidence of WMDs is difficult to understand.

15 years ago much the world doubted the evil of Saddam and refused to act in face of his weapons of mass destruction. I urge those who are seriously interested in evidence of Saddams WMDs to visit Halabja to witness the proof firsthand.

For us in Iraq, weapons of mass destruction are not about dry accounting; they have been conventional tools of repression by Saddam. Chemical weapons have been used against us more than 200 times. 

Ethnic cleansing began in Iraq in 1963, when the Baath Party seized power. Around a million people have been displaced, mostly Kurds but also Turcoman and Assyrian Christians. The fascist regime of Saddam has cost the lives of at least two million Iraqis. Four million more have been forced to become refugees. So far more than 170 mass graves have been uncovered throughout Iraq. These mass graves should vindicate the morality of this war of liberation in Iraq.

Where there’s evidence of mass destruction, who needs to see the weapons?

(Via Harry’s place)