DF: We shouldn’t have toppled Saddam Hussein

Foreign affairs spokesperson Søren Espersen laments Denmark’s participation in invasion

Earlier this week, the long-awaited report investigating Denmark’s participation in the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo was published.

Now, the foreign affairs spokesperson of Dansk Folkeparti (DF), Søren Espersen, has stated on the P1 radio program ‘Slotsholmen’ that he regrets his party was part of making the decision to invade Iraq and topple the sitting dictator Saddam Hussein.

“Of course we should have never ousted Saddam Hussein and created all that drama. The secular leaders, including Gadaffi in Libya and Mubarak in Egypt, stabilised the Middle East. We helped topple all of them and create this current chaos,” Espersen said on ‘Slotsholmen’.

READ MORE: Long-awaited conflict report: The US calls and Denmark comes running

Iran, not Iraq
DF, along with Venstre and Konservative, made up the majority in Parliament needed to send Danish soldiers to fight in Iraq

Espersen wasn’t in Parliament at the time, but he was an advocate of the war through his position at the time as DF’s head of communications. He was eventually elected an MP in 2005.

“My Israeli son-in-law said it already back then. He was in the paratroopers in Israel and said ‘it’s the wrong country you are attacking. It should be Iran’. I should have listened to him,” said Espersen.