Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

We do not want the insurgents and the terrorists to win; we are against that. We are against those people. Funnily enough, we want our side to win. People are rightly appalled at the killing that has been taking place in Iraq. We are all appalled at that. But do we want it to get worse or do we want it to get better? Do we want to see a decline in the killing or do we want to see it get worse? Those who argue for a precipitate withdrawal from Iraq are arguing in effect for an environment where many more people will be killed, where Darfur will look, as I have said before, like a Sunday afternoon picnic. That is what will happen with a so-called exit strategy which is premature and which leaves the country in a state of chaos.

At the end of the day, on this side of the House we know this is a tough issue to argue; we accept that. But we also know that to allow terrorists to win, to allow the insurgents to win, would be not just a catastrophe for the Iraqis and the Middle East, as former Prime Minister of Spain Aznar said overnight, but a disaster for security in our own region because of the inspiration such a defeat would give to terrorists in South-East Asia. It is as simple as that. I think that as a country and as part of the international community we have to have the courage to win this war, not just to say our exit strategy is surrender.

See this speech in context