Iraq war Follow

What does a politician do when a war they started goes badly wrong? Pick a fight with those who have opposed it, of course.

Even George Bush now acknowledges there may be a similarity between the present situation in Iraq and the Tet offensive mounted by Viet Cong guerrillas in South Vietnam in early 1968.

Once it boasted the most advanced health service in the Middle East, an education system that turned out generations of skilled workers and a population that consumed the most books in the Arab world.

As Iraq sinks into chaos, the US military is planning to pull up the drawbridge behind a string of "superbases".

"There are only bad options for the coalition from now on," said Sir Jeremy Greenstock this week. He was the deputy ruler of Iraq for much of the occupation and has defended British policy down the line.

The Anglo-American adventure in Iraq is heading for a disaster for Washington as great as the defeat in Vietnam.

The Stop the War Coalition has called a People’s Assembly on Islamophobia and the "war on terror" on Saturday 18 November. The Muslim community is facing a racist onslaught from politicians and the media.

On Tuesday 31 October, Parliament will debate and vote on the Iraq war for the first time since March 18 2003. Alex Salmond, one of the MPs who initiated the debate, says: "This is the first time since the invasion of Iraq that the government can be held to account over this illegal and unwanted war."

The death toll of the war on Iraq is much higher than even the most gloomy estimates. That is the conclusion of the most extensive study made of the country to date.

The occupation in Iraq hit another bloody landmark earlier this week with the number of dead coalition troops rising to 3,000. This includes 119 British soldiers.

Kamil Mahdi interviewed

As Socialist Worker went to press on Tuesday of this week, the Turkish parliament was set to vote on sending troops to Lebanon as part of the United Nations (UN) force.