Iraq One Year On - Mr Soley Reflects

hard line from local MP

Local Labour MP Clive Soley,who backed the war with Iraq has criticised the Prime Minister for basing so much of his case for war on weapons of mass destruction argument.

Mr Soley says Mr Blair should have made more of the case for regime change and called for a change in international law, to permit "ousting "psychopathic killers who rule failed states".

Who woud determine what is a 'failed state' remained unclear although he did point out the UN could have a role to play.

Mr Soley, speaking on Radio Four's Today Programme last week (17/03/2004) went on to say, "Our case is that there is a case for regime change in these extreme cases of failing states and the key is to find a way in which the UN can legitimise intervention and regime change because we cannot go on in the 21st century accepting that somehow or other it's alright to turn a blind eye to these psychopathic killers who do take over nation states."

In response to the fact that America had previously supprted Saddam he argued that in the days of the Cold War meant that Western policy was often responding to what the Soviet Union was doing - if the Kremlin backed Iran, the Pentagon backed Iraq.

Mr Soley, who obviously feels the world is a safer place without Saddam, went on to say that just because brutal dictators had be supported by such policies in the past did not mean they could be justified in the future. The world was not a safe place if "people like that" were left in power.

March 22, 2004