MPs vote to bomb Iraq — again!

by New Worker correspondent

THE HOUSE of Commons voted overwhelmingly last Friday for Britain to join with the United Sates in bombing Iraq, ostensibly to combat the extreme and brutal “psychopathic terrorists” of the militant Islamic group ISIS.

Only 43 MPs opposed the motion; 24 of them were Labour.

David Cameron told the House he could not “walk on by” in the face of the ISIS threat — though ISIS is one of the opposition groups in Syria created, armed and trained by western powers to undermine the Assad government.

He warned that the mission will take “not just months but years”.

The motion before the House was for Britain to join the US bombing of ISIS in Iraq but not in Syria after Labour leader Ed Miliband said he would not support bombing Syria.

ISIS fanatics have taken their activities into Iraq after the Syrian army forced them across the border.

Cameron lost a vote in the House of Commons a year ago to bomb Syria in order to bring down the Assad government. Many believe that is still the main aim of the western powers and that the bombing will have little effect on the ISIS militia but will harm the civilians and infrastructure of both Syria and Iraq.

The Syrian government is totally opposed to American and/ or British air strikes on their territory, even if they are supposed to be targeted at their enemy, ISIS.

Already American bombing has killed and injured many Syrian civilians and has destroyed grain storage silos “by mistake”.

Labour Shadow Education minister Rushanara Ali resigned from the party’s front bench because she could not back airstrikes.

The Stop the War campaign has called for a national demonstration on 4th October (assemble at Temple Tube station at 1pm) against the bombing of both Iraq and Syria and accused MPs of voting for a third Iraq war.

“The last two have brought almost unimaginable suffering to the people of Iraq and have helped to create the current chaos, driving the country to the brink of break up.

“They claim this is a humanitarian operation to defeat ISIS. In fact, ISIS is backed by various Middle East powers and a new aerial bombardment will not defeat it.

“It will however, kill innocents, further fragment the country and inflame violence. The record of the west’s wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya show that as well as creating misery and mayhem, western military interventions make the world a more volatile, dangerous place.

“Cameron’s new war has built-in mission creep. Discussions are already underway for Britain to join the bombing of Syria, and there are growing calls for boots on the ground.

“The Stop the War Coalition is asking every one of its supporters to attend the demonstration against the insanity of another war on Iraq.”