Iraq Follow

Parliament is not nearly democratic enough. We need a revolution to get genuine control, writes Paul Foot

"I WAS out in Saudi Arabia for the 1990-91 Gulf War. My job was as a dispatch rider for one of the armoured brigades. I had quite a lot of freedom to roam around on the bike. I saw the utter devastation caused by the RAF Tornadoes; carpet-bombing and the artillery. It sickened me. One day I drove my bike into a mass grave. The British army was bulldozing the Iraqi bodies into a big hole.

BLOOD brothers Bush and Blair met in Washington last week to plan the final elements of their war against Iraq. Days before, both had made chilling speeches about the era of permanent war. Answering questions in the House of Commons, Blair laid out his readiness to attack Iraq.

THE US has drawn up plans to use nuclear weapons in an attack on Iraq. The terrifying prospect was revealed in a classified presidential directive leaked to the Washington Times newspaper. Stratcom, an arm of the Pentagon, has drawn up a list of possible nuclear targets in a "Theatre Nuclear Planning Document".

Helen Shooter went to Salford in Manchester to talk to refugees and find out what their lives are really like.

BUSH AND Blair's plans to attack Iraq will create devastation and kill thousands of civilians. We are unlikely to be shown the full extent of the horror while the war goes on. But there have been many films, books and songs that have shown the true face of war and protested against it.

A WAR on Iraq will not just cost the lives of many tens of thousands of Iraqi people. It will also cost billions of pounds, money lavished on US and British weapons of mass destruction, while public services are crying out for investment.

What happens in Britain in the next few weeks will shape history. Everyone in the anti-war movement can be part of making that history. The clock is ticking relentlessly towards war. On Monday chief United Nations weapons inspector Hans Blix reported that his team had found no evidence of any Iraqi "weapons of mass destruction". We cannot trust the UN to block the war.

BUSH AND Blair would like to have United Nations (UN) backing for a war on Iraq. Opinion polls show that UN support would blunt opposition to a war from some people. Nobody should believe that UN support means that a war will be more just. Nor can the UN be relied on to block war.

James Thorne is a former commander in the Royal Tank Regiment. He was trained at Sandhurst, the elite school for army officers. James came from a military family and joined the army for a career. He served in Cyprus and Northern Ireland. He tells Socialist Worker why he is now opposed to war

TWO THINGS formed the background to last weekend's World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil. One was the threat of a devastating war against Iraq within weeks. The other was the swing to the left in Latin America, expressed in the victory of left wing candidates in presidential elections in Brazil and Ecuador, and in the failure of the coup attempt against Hugo Chavez's government in Venezuela.

RAIL WORKERS in Motherwell, near Glasgow, have underlined why they refused to move a train carrying ammunition for use against Iraq last week. Their action should be an inspiration to everyone who opposes war. At a meeting of their Aslef union branch Motherwell train drivers discussed the stance taken by drivers working for the EWS rail company. The meeting agreed a statement which began: