Today's Red Cross report on conditions in Iraq confirmed our worst fears about what Iraqis are experiencing on a daily basis. The report stands in complete contrast to the spin we receive from Ministers. A stark example of how bad it is for ordinary Iraqis is that when asked what would most improve the quality of their lives, Iraqi parents responded by appealing to the authorities to at least remove the dead bodies from outside their homes each day so that their children did not have to continue to see the corpses on the streets decomposing. The consequences of the war initiated by Blair but funded by Brown will live with the Iraqi people and ourselves for generations. And yet Blair and Brown still continue to justify it.
It isn't just in Iraq that Britain's foreign policy is contributing to deaths and lives blighted by physical injury, torture and fear. New Labour's Britain supplies miltary aid to the brutal Columbian regime, whose senior miltary commanders have recently been exposed as having direct links with the drugs trade.
The Justice for Colombia Campaign has revealed that over 500 trade unionists have been killed since the regime of President Uribe came to power in 2002 and this year is set to be even bloodier than the last. The Colombian military continues to work with paramilitary death squads with total impunity and murders, torture and disappearances of opposition leaders, trade unionist students and campaigners are still everyday occurrences.
So when MPs and Trade Union General Secretaries appear on platforms opposing the war and the occupation of Iraq and calling for human rights in places like Colombia, just ask the questions:
How is it that in the election for Labour leader you can advocate support for Gordon Brown, joint leader of the present New Labour administration, that has perpetrated this war and supported with aid the brutal, murderous regime of Uribe?
How can you proclaim your peace and progressive credentials when your aim is to install Brown and his team of courtiers into office, the very people whose actions have brought about this brutality and terror on the populations of Iraq and Colombia?
