Tony Blair and George Bush lied, thousands died. On Saturday we will be marching in memory of more than 10,000 Iraqi civilians, including the countless number still being killed - not least by unexploded cluster bombs -- and in memory of an estimated 30,000 soldiers who have been slaughtered in this illegal war: IraqBodyCount.net
The 200 hundred deaths and over 1000 injured in last Thursdays horrific atrocity in Madrid are a direct result of the lies which Bush, Blair and Aznar told to justify an illegal war. We will be marching in solidarity with the Spanish people, who have their own anti-war demonstration in Madrid on Saturday. We will also be marching in recognition of the great service the Spanish people did for the cause of peace in their general election on Sunday, when they held the warmonger Aznar to account and threw his party ignominiously out of office, a fate which if there is any justice will be suffered by George Bush this year and Tony Blair next year.
The world still says no to war and on Saturday 20 March we will be marching in unity with demonstrations taking place in towns and cities in over 50 countries worldwide. For an up to date list go to: www.stopwar.org.uk/march20/index.asp
George Bush's "war against terror" is a war without end and is a cover for the US government's aim to impose its power anywhere it sees fit round the world. On Saturday we will be marching to say we reject George Bush's view that "you are either with us or with the terrorists". We are opposed to Bush's endless war and to the terrorism that is its mirror image.
The occupation of Iraq is as illegal as the war that preceded it. Terrorism will only be "defeated" when the political and social conditions which produce terrorists are addressed, not least of which is the US/UK occupation of Iraq and the wholesale stripping of the country's assets for the benefit of American multinational companies with direct links to the Bush administration.
The Butler Committee is the third inquiry set up by Blair and is once again packed with sycophants and place servers with the sole intention of whitewashing his war crimes. On Saturday we will be marching for an end to this charade and to insist that only a full, independent and open inquiry will reveal the truth of why Tony Blair took this country to war against the wishes of the British people.
On 5 March Tony Blair called for a change in international law to allow for "pre-emptive wars" against any state, based we must assume on the kind of "evidence" which said that Iraq had vast arsenals of weapons of mass destruction. This is the road to international anarchy and could be used as justification for any country to attack any other country.
The "war against terror" has been used to mount the biggest attack on our civil rights in generations, giving unprecedented powers to secret and unaccountable forces to spy on us, curtail our freedoms and subject individuals to arbitrary arrest.
The lies that Bush, Blair and Aznar used to justify the war were an affront to democracy. Ninety per cent of the Spanish people opposed the war in Iraq but their prime minister Aznar - a long time close friend of the Bush family - ignored their views and made a now infamous alliance with George Bush and Tony Blair. Last Sunday the Spanish people asserted their democratic rights and Aznar paid the political price for ignoring the people's opposition to an illegal war. This is an inspiration to us all and it is outrageous that US government officials are now accusing the Spanish people of "appeasing terrorists" by throwing out a thoroughly discredited government.
On March 20 we will be marching against the hypocrisy of George Bush and Tony Blair. They say their war in Iraq and the "war against terrorism" are in defence of "our civilised values and way of life", while they support or tolerate brutal dictatorships and tyrannies around the world (Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Equatorial Guinea, etc, etc). Bush and Blair say they are upholding international law, while they support Israel with the arms and financial aid that enable it to violate dozens of UN resolutions condemning the illegality of its actions in occupied Palestinian lands. Bush and Blair say they are defending "freedom and human rights", while holding hundreds of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay and Belmarsh Prison in indefinite detention, under conditions which contravene the Geneva Conventions, where they are refused any information about the charges against them or the right to proper legal representation, and where they are subjected to interrogation techniques that are designated as torture under international law.