Iraq Follow

BLAIR HAS effectively abandoned his attempt to say international law supported the invasion of Iraq. Speaking to a hand-picked business audience last week, he said "it may be that under international law" the US and Britain are not authorised to topple regimes they don't like.

The bombings on Tuesday last week marked one of the bloodiest days of the occupation. How have Iraqis responded?

OVER 100 people attended the Globalise Resistance Scotland conference in Glasgow last Saturday. Participants heard George Galloway denounce as "drivel" Blair's recent speech that though the war in Iraq might have been illegal, it shouldn't have been. Mark Curtis, author and now director of the World Development Movement, spoke of the need for more direct action.

'THE ENEMY within." That chilling phrase sums up how top establishment figures see people who dare to reveal the truth about the war. They dragged GCHQ worker Katharine Gun through the courts for 12 months to terrify others out of speaking out. The government was forced to drop the case against her only because it would have had to reveal the legal basis for attacking Iraq in court.

"THIS NEW video will be an excellent resource for people to use in Stop the War meetings," says school student and anti-war activist Ed Cope from Cambridge. "The makers of this film have managed to bring together material from leading members of the anti-war movement. It slots together interviews with footage from British news and Al Jazeera and film from the Vietnam War. "The nasty face of US and British imperialism is portrayed with powerful images. Nothing is more disturbing than the images from Iraq-the scalps of children in pools of blood, burnt bodies in crushed cars and men being thrust to the ground by soldiers, with plastic sacks over their heads and their hands bound behind

BLAIR WANTS to draw a line under the war and move on. He wants us to forget about the 10,000 civilians who have died in Iraq since the war began. He wants us to forget that, far from bringing democracy to the country, the US plans to impose a government on Iraq.

'OUR ARMED forces have taken 14,000 casualties in Iraq," says retired colonel David Hackworth. That is the truth George Bush is desperate to hide. The US has pitted the most powerful army in the world against a country devastated by sanctions. The Iraqi people have, of course, suffered the most from the war. But Bush and his gang care little more for the overwhelmingly poor white, black and Hispanic soldiers they pitch into the hell of Iraq.

Colin Barker continues his series on the 'Where We Stand' Socialist Workers Party statement of principles printed each week in Socialist Worker

THE BBC may well feel its back is against the wall in its battle with New Labour over coverage of the Iraq war. But the corporation must be on safer ground with another conflict, World War Two.

MORE THAN 1,000 people marched in London last week as part of demonstrations in several countries demanding the release of Kurdish leader Ocalan and freedom for Kurdistan. Demonstrators in London were agreed that the US occupation of Iraq had not brought genuine Kurdish liberation any closer.

BLAIR'S WAR lies have sickened millions. Now we have the chance to take to the streets and show our anger. The Stop the War Coalition is calling on its supporters to mobilise for a national demonstration in London on 20 March, the first anniversary of the war on Iraq.

BLAIR IS increasingly like someone trying to extricate themselves from a net. The more he struggles, the more he is enmeshed. He has not been able to end the shockwaves from the war on Iraq.