By Jake Johnson Global Research, October 10, 2022
“Most people seem to get off on the fact that it’s escalating,” said socialist MEP Clare Daly, who condemned the E.U. for doing nothing to prevent Russia’s war from becoming “a wider horror.”
Two Irish members of the European Parliament on Thursday voted against a resolution calling for a massive increase in weapons shipments to Ukraine and blasted E.U. member nations over their refusal to pursue diplomatic initiatives to end Russia’s devastating war.
In a fiery floor speech ahead of Thursday’s vote on the resolution—which ultimately passed by an overwhelming margin of 504 to 26, with 36 abstentions—Irish MEP Clare Daly lamented that “practically nobody in this chamber is doing anything to prevent” the war in Ukraine from “quickly escalating into a wider horror,” a nod at the growing risk of nuclear catastrophe as Russian President Vladimir Putin ramps up his threatening rhetoric.
“In fact, most people seem to get off on the fact that it’s escalating,” said Daly, an Independent. “And at this precise moment, of course, as usual, the voices challenging the rush to war are attacked and silenced, smeared as traitors, cronies, Putin puppets, Kremlin stooges, Russian agents.”
“Frankly, it’s pathetic,” she continued. “And I don’t make the comparison lightly, but the crudeness and cynicism of these slurs coming from mainstream E.U. parties might as well have been written by [Nazi war criminal] Hermann Göring, who infamously said that even though people never want war, they can be brought to war with threats and smears.”Why Did US Torpedo April Ukraine War Negotiated Settlement?
“This house should be ashamed of this debate,” Daly added. “Words are being twisted, meanings subverted, and the truth turned on its head. Opposing the horrible madness of war is not anti-European, it’s not anti-Ukrainian, it’s not pro-Russian: it’s common sense. The working class of Europe has nothing to gain from this war and everything to lose. And I find it laughable that those calling for arms to Ukraine never call for arms for the people of Palestine, or for the people of Yemen. Unlike you, I oppose all war. I want it stopped. I make no apology for that.”