Julian McGauran (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I have spoken many times in this parliament on the issue of Iraq and on each occasion my conviction grows stronger that Australia is doing the right thing having a presence in Iraq. Australia is doing the right thing for its own long-term security and that of the international community, and for the good of the Middle East. The killing by American forces last week of the al-Qaeda No. 2 and the mastermind of the Iraq insurgency, Abu Masab al-Zarqawi, was a job well done. This butcher was responsible for personally decapitating, on video, foreigners and Iraqis and orchestrating the suicide bombing of innocent Iraqi men, women and children. Further, he had authorised attacks on Iraq and foreign troops. He lived by the sword and accordingly died by the sword. While some argue his death will actually have little effect on the insurgency as other Zarqawis will bob up, the weight of evidence is that the death of al-Zarqawi will be a big blow. Evil masterminds do not grow on trees.

Moreover, it has been reported that, with the tracking and subsequent killing of al-Zarqawi, a treasure-trove of intelligence on his insurgency network has been uncovered with the potential to cripple this network of terrorists. While no-one doubts that the roadside bombs and suicide bombings will continue, on any analysis the insurgency from its peak post the fall of Saddam Hussein to now has been severely culled, and the Iraqi and coalition security forces now have the upper hand. It is important, indeed essential, to note this progress has been underlined by the support of the people of Iraq and their conviction and thirst for democracy.

Just as the West after the twin tower terrorist attack was plunged into an ideological struggle of defending its way of life against an ideological enemy in fundamentalist Islam, so too have the people of Iraq been plunged into an ideological war. The choice for them is the ideology of freedom through democracy versus the dim ideology of the terrorists. Here too the terrorists are losing as each democratic stake is placed in the ground. It was after all al-Zarqawi, the al-Qaeda leader in Iraq, who said some two years ago, ‘Democracy is coming, and this would mean suffocation for al-Qaeda,’ and he added, ‘Time is not on our side.’ It has been in this time of democratic transition that the insurgents have most frantically tried to whip up a civil war between Sunnis and Shiites to head off the path to democracy. But no fear, no threat and no bloodshed has halted the people of Iraq’s desire. The strides forward since the fall of the merciless dictator Saddam Hussein, though set in great tragedy, have been enormous, inspiring and conclusive.

To be reflective, Australia ought to count its historical blessings as one of the very few countries where democracy was created without war and bloodshed. In just 12 months, look how far the Iraqis have come. In January 2005, 8.5 million Iraqis under the serious threat of violence came out to vote for an interim government. Ten months later, 10 million took part in a vote on the referendum and, at the end of the year, 12 million, or some 75 per cent, of the eligible voters elected their first national assembly. In 12 months, there have been three elections, each one bigger than the one before. There can be no doubt of the Iraqi people’s rejection of the insurgents’ mad ideology. They want to win over the terrorists.

The consequences of establishing a free and democratic Iraq will be historic. Firstly, as Tony Blair has said:

… global terrorism is so anxious to stop us in Iraq and Afghanistan—because if they succeed in that then they stop the possibility of democracy taking the place of religious fanaticism in these countries.

Whereas if we succeed and if democracy takes root in Iraq and Afghanistan then I think, after that, global terrorism is on a downward path ...

Secondly, a consequence of a democratic Iraq will have profound strategic undercurrents in the Middle East. It will stand as a beacon of freedom in the Arab world for countries ruled by oppressors and dictators. In many ways, it has already started to affect the Arab world with people power expelling the Syrians from Lebanon last year and the rejection of terror and weapons of mass destruction in Libya and that country’s return to international acceptance. If history is any guide, a democratic Iraq will have a cascading effect throughout the Arab world.

Thirdly, a democratic Iraq—the new Iraq as distinct from the old Iraq—will not attack its neighbours or conspire with terrorists. It is likely to act as a buffer against the agents and protectors of terror like Iran. There is a great deal at stake for the people of Iraq and the Western world and its values—values Australia shares. Yet critics within our own country would have us believe in the moral equivalence of the insurgents—that they are freedom fighters indeed. These critics are more blinded by their ingrained hate for America and its superpower status. No dose of truth or reality cures them of their delusion. Neither suicide bombing of women and children nor al-Zarqawi’s personal beheadings of Iraqis and foreigners cures them of their delusion. They simply say that it is the coalition’s fault for being in Iraq, having preferred to strap the Iraqi people with a merciless dictatorship than to give them a chance at democracy.

I have heard the speeches in this place, this very parliament, blaming the civilian deaths upon the coalition forces, and yet silence on the continuing brutality of the insurgents. From the same people I have not heard acknowledgment of the people of Iraq’s wish for democracy or the success of the elections. They do not care about it. They would prefer to chant the mantra about the coalition’s mistake. These people are easily recognisable. They are from the same Left that supported throughout the Cold War years the moral equivalence of the Communist regimes. Even with the evidence of the Stalin years, the scales did not fall from their eyes. How can we expect that, in the face of the evidence before them in Iraq, the scales will fall from their eyes?

In conclusion: I believe Iraq will endure and history will show it as a seminal point in world affairs. To quote Tony Blair again:

We will not defeat this terror until we face up to the fact that its roots are deep and that it is not a passing spasm of anger but a global ideology at war with us and our way of life. Their case is that democracy is a Western concept we are forcing on an unwilling culture of Islam.

That is the ideological war we are up against, and I believe we will endure.