Iraq Follow

THE GOVERNMENT is sending a naval task force to the Gulf to prepare for a murderous attack on Iraq. The fleet includes a submarine, a destroyer and an aircraft carrier. Officially the ships are heading for a training event off Malaysia. But one senior official called the exercise "a very convenient cover".

SINCE WORLD War Two the US has been the dominant world power. In some ways that power has declined substantially, like in its share of wealth and production. In other measures it has increased-military force. America's predecessor in world control understood very well what was happening as World War Two drew to a close.

PEOPLE ACROSS the world oppose George Bush's plans for war on Iraq, a new survey has revealed. The survey of views from 44 countries was overseen by former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. It shows how hostility to the US regime stems from a deeply rooted suspicion about Bush's motives for waging war on Iraq.

THE SUN and Daily Mail were cheering this week at the closure of the Sangatte refugee camp in France. The same papers that attacked the striking firefighters also run hate campaigns against refugees.

IT SEEMS as if we live in a democracy. After all, every five years we elect the government. That's certainly better than not electing it. But then there are some questions. Most people in Britain support the firefighters, are against war on Iraq and oppose student fees. How does New Labour respond? It attacks the firefighters, threatening thousands of jobs as the price of a half-decent pay rise.

AROUND 500 protesters marched in Oxford last Saturday against war on Iraq and for justice for the Palestinians. People of all religions, political orientations and ages united in a display of resistance and solidarity, led by a brilliant band of student musicians. At the rally afterwards there was a determination to build for the European day of action on 15 February. Mike Cotgrave

"A COLD and calculated manipulation of the work of human rights activists." That was the damning verdict of Amnesty International on home secretary Jack Straw's dossier on human rights abuses in Iraq published this week. Amnesty is absolutely right to question Straw's motives. New Labour has launched a propaganda war to back a US attack on Iraq. It wants us to believe it is so concerned about human rights there that it will join the US in blasting the country and its people. George Bush has been piling troops and weapons into the Gulf region ready for the mass destruction of the country. US and British planes have kept up their regular bombing raids on Iraq, which have been continuing

IMAGINE IF an unarmed United Nations official was shot by Iraqi troops while he was inside a UN compound in Baghdad. Imagine if the Iraqi army then delayed an ambulance taking the official to hospital and the man died as a result.

SOME 40 percent of people in Britain firmly oppose war on Iraq, according to a poll on Monday. You wouldn't get that impression from the debate over Iraq in parliament that same day. Most of the debate was over how to wage a war.

IN THE aftermath of the United Nations Security Council resolution authorising the return of weapons inspectors to Iraq, many people have deluded themselves that this makes war less likely. Even Richard Perle, the ultra right wing adviser to the Pentagon, argued on BBC News 24 last Sunday that the aim of Bush's administration was no longer "regime change" in Iraq but the removal of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. This apparent shift in US objectives may only be a figleaf covering the administration's real intentions.

I SPENT two days last week with the asylum seekers sheltering in a disused church in Calais. Everybody should know the truth about their lives. The 120 people involved were made up of 85 Iraqi Kurds and 35 Afghans. The Iraqis were bitterly aware of the hypocrisy of governments that are prepared to launch a war against "tyrant Saddam Hussein" but act in the most brutal fashion towards people who have fled Iraq.

UNITED Nations weapons inspectors went into Iraq again on Monday. US president George Bush is still desperate to go to war against Iraq. "The inspections cannot work-period," said a senior US Pentagon official last week.