Barely a week after Parliament voted for air strikes on Iraq, Isis are on the outskirts of Baghdad and there is a growing call from military hawks for the deployment of western ground troops. Belgium and Denmark are the latest countries to join the coalition of western military action against Iraq, but in practice it […]
Posts Tagged ‘Iraq’
Why I opposed intervention in Iraq
Oct 1st, 2014 by Grahame Morris.The decision to engage UK armed forces in a foreign conflict is never easy. For the second time in a year David Cameron sought authorisation from parliament for military intervention in the Middle East. While parliament rejected air strikes against the Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad last year, on Friday MPs voted overwhelmingly in favour of […]
Parliament debates bombing Iraq
Sep 28th, 2014 by Mike Phipps.Reading the Hansard record of Friday September 26th’s debate on going to war, one is struck by the paucity of voices raised against this folly. Caroline Lucas, the sole Green MP and George Galloway, the Respect MP, both made telling points, but of the 24 Labour MPs who voted against, very few got to do […]
Iraq vote: rebels and abstainers
Sep 26th, 2014 by Jon Lansman.This afternoon a vote was taken in the House of Commons to approve the use of air strikes (but not ground troops) in Iraq (but not Syria). This was approved by 524 votes to 43, with the bulk of the Labour Party supporting the Coalition government. Only 23 Labour MPs joined 6 Tories, 1 Lib […]
How can ISIS be stopped?
Sep 26th, 2014 by Michael Meacher.Today’s debate in the Commons brings to a head the issue of what action should be taken to stop Islamic State in its murderous rampage across northern Iraq and Syria. It is not this time another invasion of Iraq, but a desperate plea by the new Iraqi government for outside assistance to help combat what […]
UK must not be sucked into yet another war in Iraq
Sep 19th, 2014 by Michael Meacher.After the Scots’ referendum, an even bigger issue is now rapidly coming down the line. As the US is being dragged remorselessly into what Obama likes to call a counter-insurgency campaign in Iraq-Syria – a war by any other name – it is vital that the UK doesn’t tamely follow suit as Blair did at […]
So what are UK objectives in Syria?
Sep 4th, 2014 by Michael Meacher.Here we go again. Cameron’s latest declaration from the NATO summit is clearly hinting his intention of joining the US on air strikes against ISIS positions in Syria as well as in Iraq. This stance is legalised by claiming that the Iraqi government has called for these strikes, which is true, and that president Assad’s […]
Cameron, over-hasty as always on rhetoric, has to retreat over action on ISIS
Sep 3rd, 2014 by Michael Meacher.Cameron on Friday was waxing bellicose about a “greater and deeper threat to our security than we have known before” because of ISIS. Compared with Hitler in 1939? Compared with the IRA during the 1980-90s? But Cameron’s statement to the House yesterday was remarkable not only for the way he has been forced to backtrack […]
What is to be done in Iraq?
Aug 18th, 2014 by Michael Meacher.As ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), following on from overrunning a third of Syria and Iraq, is now trying to encircle Baghdad which could make the survival in its present borders untenable, there are very few options left. Western airpower alone cannot halt ISIS except temporarily, and neither the US nor any […]
The genocide of Christians is the legacy of Blair. Labour must learn the lessons
Aug 10th, 2014 by Jon Lansman.The persecution of Christians in Iraq has become a genocide, say their religious leaders. The slaughter of the Yazidi and others by Isis militias is no different. And there is no doubt that the 2003 invasion of Iraq planned by Bush and Blair contributed to its current disintegration and the increasing disaster caused by Isis, as Blair’s […]