This House believes that...
... we believed that the 2003 Iraq war was wrong. We all believed that, in this house, unanimously, at the time. Ditto the war in Afghanistan.
We remember Colin Powell making the case for attacking Iraq in the United Nations. We were unconvinced. Powell later admitted that he'd oversold the "evidence" and apologised. Gee, thanks Col....
I remember a simple case counter-terror czar Richard Clarke made against the the 2003 Iraq war:
"Attacking Iraq after 911 is like attacking Mexico after Pearl Harbour".
We, in this House, agreed with Clarke, and we were right. It did turn out to be a mistake. (Though the attack and military operations were successful, the Occupation was not so).
Now we have the war in Iran, Operation Epic Fury.
On this one, this House is divided. I support it. Others don't.
I support it because I believe the dangers Iran poses. I believe Iran poses serious, clear and present existential dangers to us all in the west.
Iran, its Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), its Supreme Leader, all repeat the same thing. They chant it before every parliamentary meeting: "Death to Israel, Death to America, Death to the West".
They mean it!
They have been working to achieve that. They fund powerful proxies in the region, as a "Circle of Fire" around the "Little Satan" of Israel: Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.
They spend more on digging vast tunnels than they spend on health care. They spend more on drones that on schools. They spend more on Hamas than on Hospitals.
The attack America and the West, over and over. Here's a list.
Their aim is for a world of one religion only: Islam. Their Shia version.
They have been working hard to get an arsenal of nuclear bombs.
This was clear even during the time of Obama's "Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action". After the signing of the JCPOA, United Nations weapons inspectors reported that Iran had repeatedly breached the deal.
Meantime the JCPOA did not even cover the program of building Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. Iran were free to build as many of those as they wished. Some deal!
These are missiles they will aim at Europe first. The Supreme Leader and the IRGC have said the "Black Flag of Islam" will fly over the St Peter's. How much of resistance would Rome offer if an ICBM were to land in the middle of the Vatican? Please let's not test this.
The IGRC say their aim is to have an ICBM reach the United States. Building ICBMs was nowhere covered in the JCPOA. Go figure that one. Gee thanks, Barack....
I followed this issue over the years. Debates by experts, at the likes of Intelligence Squared, ended with wins for the side doubting the value of the JCPOA.
No wonder. And good riddance to a bad deal.
If Iran achieve the building of a nuclear weapon, their leadership repeatedly said they would use it on Israel. And then on Europe. And then on the United States.
Iran's madman theocrats are determined to vanquish the world in the name of their millenarian Shia Islam. That's a fact.
I would have supported any military action against Iran by any president since 1979. I didn't care if it was Jimmy Carter, or George H.W. Bush, or Bill Clinton, or George W. Bush, or Barack Obama, or Donald Trump. Just so long as the threat was attacked and neutralised.
None of them did. Until Trump. I salute his brave decision. Others hate him for it.
Whether he succeeds or fails, at least the has the guts to take on Iran, the largest, the most serious, the most clear and present existential threat to the West.
On the other side, we have those against this war.
I grant that they may have genuine concerns about it.
But what I'm seeing is that their opposition is more because they don't like Trump.
Some have said it outright: "If the war ends and Trump and Bibi survive, we've lost the war". These people -- which is all the Mainstream Media and pretty much all the Democratic Party, apart from John Fetterman -- hate the war because they hate Trump. That's not a reason!
They are cheering for an American loss in the war, so that Trump loses.
That, to me, is disgusting. You're free to oppose the war. But not just because you hate Trump. You're hoping for America to fail, because you loathe Trump??!
Make a better case.
This House believes that whether your support or oppose Operation Epic Fury, you should have reasons. I mean decent, based, reasons. Not because you hate the Orange Man.
I've set out my reasons, above. If you oppose the war, what are your reasons?
ADDED: Then Florida Senator Marco Rubio (now Secretary of State) set out the reasons we have to be worried about Iran, back in 2015. Eleven years ago. It's worn well.
Perfect, Marco! Link here.
