Iraq Follow

For the past week Cindy Sheehan has camped outside George Bush’s ranch in Texas demanding the opportunity to ask him why her son Casey was sent to die in an illegal and immoral war.

The whole saga of the Iraqi constitution, where any agreement on a draft was delayed until Monday of next week, is indicative of the situation in Iraq under the US occupation.

Doctors for Iraq, a group set up to oppose the war, is warning of an urgent health and humanitarian crisis unfolding as the US launches new attacks on the towns of Haditha, Rawa, Parwana and Heet in the west of Iraq.

From El Salvador to Iraq Recent leaks in Britain and the US promising troop reductions in Iraq should not be taken as a weakening of Anglo-American commitment to winning a protracted war.

The sudden death of Robin Cook is a major blow to the Labour Party as it was traditionally conceived, as a party of progressive social reform.

How many times must Tony Blair have daydreamed about how much easier life would be if Iraq and the anti-war movement went away? The draconian policies he announced last week are measures to cow and silence his critics. Britain already has a raft of policies to deal with terrorist offences.

The US-led occupation of Iraq lurched further into the quagmire last week as the coalition body count crossed the 2,000 mark.

The AFL-CIO union federation in the US, which represents millions of US workers, last week sent out a strong message against George Bush. Delegates to its convention voted to call for an end to the occupation of Iraq and the quick return of US troops.

Troops in new abuse claims Some 23 US soldiers serving in Iraq have been charged with mistreating detainees while on operations in the Baghdad area.

Last week, before the terrible bombings in London on Thursday, we learned that the US and British governments had drawn up secret plans to withdraw troops from Iraq. Defence secretary John Reid was forced to admit the existence of such plans after they were leaked to the Mail on Sunday.

Peter Brierley, who lost his son Shaun in Iraq in 2003, spoke to Socialist Worker after addressing a 1,000-strong vigil organised by the Stop the War Coalition on the Saturday after the London bombings:

From Iraq We have no mouthsWe evaporatedYou don’t see the holes in the ground where we were putWe are the unfoundWe are uncountedYou don’t see the homes we madeWe’re not even the small print or the bit in brackets.You see less of us than you see of the dustYou see less of us than you see of the windBecause we were somewhere else,because we lived far from you,because our minutes, hours, days and years did not last as long as yours,because you have cameras that point the other way,because you talk about other people……Of that moment when we wentyou can’t even say you missed it.