Resistance and revolt

THE LATEST death toll of US soldiers in Iraq has sent shockwaves through the US establishment.

More US troops were killed in a single attack last Sunday than at any point since the war started.

Some 15 US troops were killed and 21 were injured when a missile brought down their Chinook helicopter near the town of Fallujah.

The attacks by the Iraqi resistance forced US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld to refer to a ‘war that is complicated and difficult’.

The use of the word ‘war’ is a telling admission by a key US hawk. George Bush declared that the war was over, and won, on 1 May.

For the first time an opinion poll in the US has recorded a majority of people-some 51 percent-disapprove of Bush’s handling of Iraq.

As Lindsey German, the convenor of the Stop the War Coalition, said this week, ‘The war was a disaster and the occupation is a disaster. Since Bush declared the end of hostilities, over 200 US troops have died. After everything that has happened to Blair, you would think that he would want to draw a line under the war and move on. Instead he has invited the leading warmonger, Bush, to visit.

We have to put the government on notice that from the moment he arrives we will have people out opposing him. The whole world will be watching. We have to demand the right to protest anywhere in London. There will be demonstrations around the country on Wednesday 19 November.

We need coaches booked to bring everyone to London on 20 November for the national demonstration. The Project for a New American Century has been damaged but it is still there. Just because they are bogged down in Iraq, it doesn’t mean they can’t last out. The things they are saying about Syria are very similar to the things they said about Iraq before the war. The movement has to continue.

And we have to make it clear to people in the US that Bush has not succeeded in winning people in this country over to the war.’