Iraq Follow

\"TONY BLAIR is swept away in October. George W Bush loses in November. President John Kerry and Prime Minister Gordon Brown rush to pull US and British troops out of an Iraq descending into civil war. The Saudi monarchy falls before the triumphant march of Islamist extremism. The oil price breaks through $60 a barrel and the world economy heads for stagflation. America's growing isolation in the world makes way for the return of American isolationism, globalisation for global protectionism.\"

US SECRETARY of state Colin Powell now admits the \"hand-over\" of power in Iraq on 30 June is a sham. He said on television last weekend that Iraqi generals and the new defence minister will put their troops \"under the direction of the multinational force commander, who will be an American\".

I WAS relieved that Troy is not a film that glorifies war. Amid the sumptuous costumes, it is a film full of human sadness, of people caught up in a war that they do not want and have no control over. As well as showing opposition to war through sympathy with characters who face death and destruction, it draws striking comparisons between Homer's Iliad and Iraq today.

'GEORGE BUSH'S administration is in a terrible mess. They have been extraordinarily arrogant since the attacks on 11 September 2001. But now they are on the defensive over the reports about the torture of Iraqis. They are very shaken by this.

AFTER THE shocking images of torture by US and British soldiers come the shocking lies and excuses from New Labour ministers. The Red Cross says it \"repeatedly made its concerns known\" about reports of Iraqis being tortured for more than a year.

GEORGE BUSH has demanded another $25 billion to fund the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. The White House promised that the $87.5 billion approved last November would last for at least a year. So far, the \"war on terror\" has cost the US $160 billion. The UN Human Development Report for 2003 says that all its minimum goals could be met if $100 billion was spent on aid to poorer countries.

US POLICY in Iraq is in meltdown. The pictures of torture by US and British forces in Iraq have underlined graphically that this is a war of terror, not a war on terror.

WE HAVE been posting Socialist Worker direct to a seller in the Welsh town of Cardigan. On Saturday she and a friend decided to set up a stall in the town centre and use the \"Get the troops out of Iraq\" petition.

"TURN IRAQ over to the United Nations (UN)." That is now the cry of many who opposed the US war on Iraq last year, such as the Green Party. But the shrillest calls over the last two weeks for the UN to run Iraq have come from the very people who were more than happy to back the invasion.

ONE WEEK before the start of the Iraq war Charles Kennedy gave a remarkable speech to the Liberal Democrats' conference. He told delegates, \"The threat of war now looms over us all. Increasingly it seems we shall see conflict very soon, perhaps next week and probably without a second UN resolution authorising the use of force. When war comes, I want to make it absolutely clear that the Liberal Democrats will be backing our troops. We supported the deployment to the Gulf in support of UN Resolution 1441. If they are now asked to risk their lives for their country and for all of us, they will have our unqualified support. They are in the Gulf region to deal with a dangerous and bruta

THE BIGGEST industrial dispute under Blair has burst into flames again just as he is hammered by events in Iraq. The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) conference this week voted to withdraw immediately from implementing the \"modernisation\" package that forms the settlement for last year's pay fight. The union is now reinstating a ban on overtime, abandoned as part of that deal.

IRAQ 2004: Blair claimed that he would bring human rights to Iraq. This picture shows US troops torturing an Iraqi in Saddam Hussein's old torture chamber. On page five we prove that British troops are also involved in torture. The brutality and killing will continue until we...