Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2004-09-15-Speech-3-059"
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"en.20040915.2.3-059"2
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"Mr President, the debate on Iraq has, so far, often been about how long it is taking to normalise the situation there, and there has been a lot of criticism from different quarters about developments in Iraq. Questions such as ‘Are things better now?’ have been heard, and people wonder whether the military presence really is leading to peace. To those who wonder whether that is the case, I can put a question: have you ever stood in the thick of a raging war and really wished that some outside force – the United States, the EU or NATO – would come and intervene in your country? That is something I myself have done, and I also have a definite answer to that question: yes, a military presence can lead to peace.
In the European Parliament, I represent Sweden, but I was born and brought up in the Balkans, a part of Europe that has seen many wars and a great deal of suffering. I have experienced war in Bosnia, and I know that it is extremely easy to start a war and extremely difficult to bring it to an end. It is still more difficult, and takes a still longer period of time, to re-build a country, and that much longer again to get people to begin to trust each other once more.
I have a feeling that those who now criticise the process in Iraq have never even been near a war. That also makes me think of the saying, ‘Those who are well fed do not understand those who are hungry.’ It is so easy to see obstacles and problems and identify what might be done better and more quickly, but the fact is that many of the current problems in Iraq are an old legacy from Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship. The fact too is that today’s Iraq without Saddam is a better Iraq. We must ensure that we are involved and make our contribution so that the Iraq of tomorrow is a still better Iraq.
Where the Balkans are concerned, the surrounding world has realised and accepted that it takes a long time to re-build a country, both literally and figuratively, but there is extremely limited understanding of the fact that development towards peace and democracy in Iraq will take time. Now, the EU must rally around our values of freedom and, united, actively support the forces that wish to build a new Iraq, a sovereign and democratic country that takes its place in the international community."@en1
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