Debate sobre o Iraque na Cambridge Union Society (ver breve descrição da mesma aqui)
A moção para o debate de hoje era “This House Believes that the benefits of removing Saddam's regime outweigh the mistakes that followed”.
A favor da moção estavam os seguintes oradores (coloco a itálico algumas das suas intervenções):
Dr Laith Kubba, Porta-voz do anterior Governo do Iraque
“Before Saddam Iraq’s GDP was bigger than Australia’s”
“Mistakes: 1) army dismantled, 2) Sunni marginalised, 3) polarisation of society.”
“Problems in Iraq: 1) Al Qaeda, 2) Saddam legacy"
Grand Imam Sayed Mohammed Musawi, Líder da World Islamic League
“22 people killed of my family, including a 2 month-old daughter”
“Mass graves everywhere, including full buses full of people!”
“US error: dismantlement of the State”
“We don’t want an occupied country”
“Good thing today: freedom of expression – newspapers criticise governments and journalists are not killed”
Bernard Jenkin, membro do Parlamento Inglês, Ministro-Sombra da Defesa durante a Guerra do Iraque, actualmente no UK Defence Select Committee
“I was thanked [in a visit to Iraq] for helping removing Saddam”
“Saddam would continue not complying with UN resolution [if still in power]”
“He paid money for each suicide bomber in Palestine”
“In 18 provinces, 14 are OK, the problem is in 4 of them”
Contra a moção estavam os seguintes oradores:
Yvonne Ridley, jornalista britânica capturada pelos Taliban, antiga repórter do Sunday Express e da Al-Jazeera English
Abdul Bari Atwan, Editor do Al-Quds News, entrevistou Osama Bin Laden há algum tempo
“Intermarriage [between Sunni and Shi’a] was common [under Saddam].”
“Terrorism is being exported to other countries”
“Saddam was bad, but what’s the alternative?”
“Osama hated Saddam more than the US”
“I know about AlQaeda, I’ve written a best seller on it!”
“We have spent 500 billion dollars in Iraq”
Charles Glass, escritor e jornalista, revelou os programas de WMD (Armas de Destruição Maciça) do Saddam nos anos 80, esteve sequestrado pelo Hezbollah 62 dias
“Saddam was one of the worst regimes of the world”
“[After giving several examples of US history with Saddam] can we trust the Americans?”
A qualidade dos oradores era excelente, o conteúdo do debate foi ao nível dos palestrantes, e a moção dava que pensar... de qualquer forma, no final a moção foi aprovada com 180 votos a favor, 143 contra, e 81 abstenções. Eu abstive-me.