Iraq Follow

US OCCUPIERS are fuelling resentment and protest as they arrogantly stamp their authority across Iraq. This week Jay Garner, the former general the US has installed as overlord, arrested Mohammed Mohsen al Zubaidi, who had declared himself mayor of Baghdad. Garner said Zubaidi was arrested for his "inability to support the coalition military authority".

THE RECENT pilgrimage by Shia Muslims to the city of Kerbala in southern Iraq shocked the US occupiers. It wasn't the display of religious fervour - George Bush, a right wing Christian zealot, has no problem with that.

THE ALL-Wales Coalition Against the War, supported by CND, held an anti-occupation of Iraq demonstration in Cardiff last Saturday. Demonstrators marched through the centre of town, and between 500 and 600 people from anti-war groups across Wales took part.

U.S. 'Liberators' fire on Iraqi demonstrators

THE WAR on Iraq was based on blatant lies, and the warmongers are still lying today. The pro-war press owners are trying to smear George Galloway MP and, through him, the anti-war movement.

THE US is succeeding in uniting Iraqis in hatred of the invasion. On Friday of last week around 20,000 people left Baghdad's Abi Hanefah Nouman mosque. They marched through the streets waving Korans and carrying banners in Arabic and English reading, "Leave our country. We want peace".

'IRAQ WAS only the first hurdle." That was what one government source said to the press last Saturday. New Labour is facing deep discontent at home as Blair tries to push ahead with hugely unpopular policies like foundation hospitals and student top-up fees.

"THE RETURN of democracy to countries like Iraq does not mean that people can then vote for, say, an Islamic party which will abandon that democracy." So said Francis Fukuyama on BBC2 last week.

WHY ARE some of the leading figures who gather around President Bush talking about attacking Syria? After all, Syria voted on the UN Security Council last year to support the anti-Iraq Resolution 1441. It also sent 17,000 troops and 300 tanks to support the US in the war against Iraq in 1991.

Any gloating over the occupation of Iraq does not look set to last long as Tony Blair pushes ahead with his massively unpopular privatising agenda. Blair could be facing bigger parliamentary revolts by Labour MPs than he did over the war.

Tony Blair tried to get backing for the war on Iraq by claiming that it would bring peace to the Middle East. But Bush and Blair's "road map to peace" for Israel and Palestine is a con. It is overwhelmingly weighted in favour of Israel, the US's watchdog state in the Middle East.

MILLIONS OF people across the world marched last weekend against the US occupation of Iraq. The chaos in Baghdad and US companies crawling over the bodies of the dead to get their hands on lucrative reconstruction contracts confirmed what this war was really about.