Iraq Follow

HOW QUICKLY the image of a "liberated" Iraq fell apart last week. Within two days of the US entering Baghdad there was chaos, looting and continued fighting. The media has talked about "rampaging mobs" as if Iraqis are a naturally "uncivilised" people who don't know how to live in peace. But the chaos is a direct result of the war the US has waged on Iraq.

OFFICIALS AT the Bloody Sunday inquiry in London weren't certain until the last minute that General Michael Jackson would give evidence as scheduled on 7 April. He's the man in overall command of British forces in Iraq, and so had other compelling commitments.

THE UN weapons inspector Hans Blix now believes the war on Iraq was "planned well in advance" of his inspectors' last visit to Iraq. He says, "You ask yourself a lot of questions when you see the things they did to try to show that the Iraqis had nuclear weapons programmes, like the fake contract with Niger."

The real looters are now arriving in Iraq. They do not want to grab a TV or a computer – nothing so trivial. They are after great chunks of the economy. Oil is top of the list. The US defence department is setting up an advisory board to run Iraq's oil industry.

THE WARMONGERS in the White House feel flushed with success. The most hardline are already threatening to extend the slaughter they have inflicted on the people of Iraq to other states on George Bush's "axis of evil". They always said toppling Saddam Hussein was a stepping stone in a permanent "war on terror".

"WE WILL export death and violence to the four corners of the earth in defence of our great nation." These chilling words were spoken by George Bush a few months ago to a US journalist. They put the invasion of Iraq into sharp focus. It wasn't just about revenge for 11 September, though Bush was determined to lash out at an Arab nation - somewhere, anywhere - in order to gain revenge for that dreadful act.

"THE internationalisation of economic life makes it necessary to settle controversies by fire and sword." That was how the revolutionary Nikolai Bukharin, writing in 1915, described the link between and the economic system and war. He was analysing imperialism, a word that has rightly been used to describe the US war against Iraq. Imperialism is not just a term of abuse or a description of empires.

THE DEAD and dying overwhelmed hospitals in Baghdad and other Iraqi cities as US forces bombed and blasted their way into civilian areas. The pictures don't make it to the BBC and Western news channels. The descriptions are buried in acres of triumphalist media coverage of US advances. But the cluster bombs, artillery barrages and tank attacks have shredded the lives of thousands of Iraqi people.

The US has unleashed on Iraq the greatest military machine the world has ever seen. It recalls the colonial wars of 100 years ago. Bush, Blair and their media cheerleaders began to hail victory as US tanks entered Baghdad on Monday. Occupation, not liberation, is the reality facing Iraq. The Ba'athist regime of Saddam Hussein has inflicted horror on the Iraqi people. For much of the time it was backed to the hilt by those now waging war against Iraq.

THIS WEEK'S budget isn't notable only for Gordon Brown's willingness to squander billions on the conquest of Iraq. It comes against the background of increased difficulties for both the US and British economies. The situation is worse in the US. Last week figures were released that showed that the number of jobs outside agriculture fell by 108,000 in March. This is the fifth fall in the past seven months, including a huge drop of 357,000 jobs in February.

BUSH AND Blair say their war will bring liberation to the Iraqi people. The death and destruction they have brought to Iraq shows what a hollow claim this is. But people who once questioned the war, like New Labour's Mo Mowlam, say they now support it, arguing the situation in Iraq can't get any worse. Both of these claims are wrong. And the US plans for a post war Iraq show precisely why.

FOR THE next nine months, every penny of the money which the government is taking from workers in extra national insurance will go to pay for the war on Iraq. That's if the war "only" costs the £3.5 billion that chancellor Gordon Brown has already set aside.