[continued from previous message] 
  
 Today, as the poison continues to move through water and soil and food, 
 children continue to be born without palates and chins and scrotums or are 
 stillborn. Many have leukaemia. 
  
 You never saw these children on the TV news then; they were too hideous for 
 their pictures, the evidence of a great crime, even to be pinned up on a 
 wall and they are old news now. 
  
 That is the true face of war. Will you be shown it by satellite when Iraq is 
 attacked? I doubt it. 
  
 I was starkly reminded of the children of Vietnam when I travelled in Iraq 
 two years ago. A paediatrician showed me hospital wards of children 
 similarly deformed: a phenomenon unheard of prior to the Gulf war in 1991. 
 She kept a photo album of those who had died, their smiles undimmed on grey 
 little faces. Now and then she would turn away and wipe her eyes. 
  
 More than 300 tons of depleted uranium, another weapon of mass destruction, 
 were fired by American aircraft and tanks and possibly by the British. Many 
 of the rounds were solid uranium which, inhaled or ingested, causes cancer. 
 In a country where dust carries everything, swirling through markets and 
 playgrounds, children are especially vulnerable. 
  
 For 12 years Iraq has been denied specialist equipment that would allow its 
 engineers to decontaminate its southern battlefields. It has also been 
 denied equipment and drugs that would identify and treat the cancer which, 
 it is estimated, will affect almost half the population in the south. 
  
 LAST November Jeremy Corbyn MP asked the Junior Defence Minister Adam Ingram 
 what stocks of weapons containing depleted uranium were held by British 
 forces operating in Iraq. 
  
 His robotic reply was: "I am withholding details in accordance with 
 Exemption 1 of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information." 
  
 Let us be clear about what the Bush-Blair attack will do to our fellow human 
 beings in a country already stricken by an embargo run by America and 
 Britain and aimed not at Saddam Hussein but at the civilian population, who 
 are denied even vaccines for the children. Last week the Pentagon in 
 Washington announced matter of factly that it intended to shatter Iraq 
 "physically, emotionally and psychologically" by raining down on its people 
 800 cruise missiles in two days. 
  
 This will be more than twice the number of missiles launched during the 
 entire 40 days of the 1991 Gulf War. 
  
 A military strategist named Harlan Ullman told American television: "There 
 will not be a safe place in Baghdad. The sheer size of this has never been 
 seen before, never been contemplated before." 
  
 The strategy is known as Shock and Awe and Ullman is apparently its proud 
 inventor. He said: "You have this simultaneous effect, rather like the 
 nuclear weapons at Hiroshima, not taking days or weeks but minutes." What 
 will his "Hiroshima effect" actually do to a population of whom almost half 
 are children under the age of 14? 
  
 The answer is to be found in a "confidential" UN document, based on World 
 Health Organisation estimates, which says that "as many as 500,000 people 
 could require treatment as a result of direct and indirect injuries". 
  
 A Bush-Blair attack will destroy "a functioning primary health care system" 
 and deny clean water to 39 per cent of the population. There is "likely [to 
 be] an outbreak of diseases in epidemic if not pandemic proportions". It is 
 Washington's utter disregard for humanity, I believe, together with Blair's 
 lies that have turned most people in this country against them, including 
 people who have not protested before. 
  
 Last weekend Blair said there was no need for the UN weapons inspectors to 
 find a "smoking gun" for Iraq to be attacked. 
  
 Compare that with his reassurance in October 2001 that there would be no 
 "wider war" against Iraq unless there was "absolute evidence" of Iraqi 
 complicity in September 11. And there has been no evidence. 
  
 Blair's deceptions are too numerous to list here. He has lied about the 
 nature and effect of the embargo on Iraq by covering up the fact that 
 Washington, with Britain's support, is withholding more than $5billion worth 
 of humanitarian supplies approved by the Security Council. He has lied about 
 Iraq buying aluminium tubes, which he told Parliament were "needed to enrich 
 uranium". The International Atomic Energy Agency has denied this outright. 
  
 He has lied about an Iraqi "threat", which he discovered only following 
 September 11 2001 when Bush made Iraq a gratuitous target of his "war on 
 terror". Blair's "Iraq dossier" has been mocked by human rights groups. 
 However, what is wonderful is that across the world the sheer force of 
 public opinion isolates Bush and Blair and their lemming, John Howard in 
 Australia. 
  
 So few people believe them and support them that The Guardian this week went 
 in search of the few who do - "the hawks". The paper published a list of 
 celebrity warmongers, some apparently shy at describing their contortion of 
 intellect and morality. It is a small list. 
  
 IN CONTRAST the majority of people in the West, including the United States, 
 are now against this gruesome adventure and the numbers grow every day. 
  
 It is time MPs joined their constituents and reclaimed the true authority of 
 parliament. MPs like Tam Dalyell, Alice Mahon, Jeremy Corbyn and George 
 Galloway have stood alone for too long on this issue and there have been too 
 many sham debates manipulated by Downing Street. 
  
 If, as Galloway says, a majority of Labour backbenchers are against an 
 attack, let them speak up now. 
  
 Blair's figleaf of a "coalition" is very important to Bush and only the 
 moral power of the British people can bring the troops home without them 
 firing a shot. 
  
 The consequences of not speaking out go well beyond an attack on Iraq. 
 Washington will effectively take over the Middle East, ensuring an age of 
 terrorism other than their own. 
  
 The next American attack is likely to be Iran - the Israelis want this - and 
 their aircraft are already in place in Turkey. Then it may be China's turn. 
  
 "Endless war" is Vice-President Cheney's contribution to our understanding. 
 Bush has said he will use nuclear weapons "if necessary". On March 26 last 
 Geoffrey Hoon said that other countries "can be absolutely confident that in 
 the right conditions we would be willing to use our nuclear weapons". Such 
 madness is the true enemy. What's more, it is right here at home and you, 
 the British people, can stop it. 
  
 On Saturday, February 15, a great demonstration against an attack on Iraq 
 will be held in London. 
  
 Contact the Stop the War Coalition on 07951 235 915 and 
 office@stopwar.org.uk 
  
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