“It’s not individual atrocity. It’s the fact that the entire war is an atrocity”

Spc. Garett Reppenhagen, aged 32, cavalry scout and sniper with the US 263rd Armor Battalion, First Infantry Division, deployed to Baquba for a year in February 2004 (‘The Other War’, The Nation, 30 Jul).

From: VOICES NEWSLETTER # 52 (August / September 2007)- See useful links
According to a ‘source close to the couple’, Cherie Blair – a QC with the human rights lawyers Matrix Churchill – ‘has private fears that her husband could face a war crimes trial over the invasion of Iraq’ (Sunday Telegraph, 10 Jun). “[S]he still thinks it is a real possibility,” a friend explained.

Who says we should get out of Iraq?
Rory Stewart, Deputy Governor of the southern Iraqi provinces of Maysan and Dhi Qar, 2003-04.“[T]here cannot be a justification for continuing, day by day, to kill Iraqis and to have our own soldiers killed in this kind of war…My instinct is that Iraqis can overcome their problems and create a functioning nation…We should leave now” (‘Iraq: The Question’, New York Review of Books, 31 May).

Former Shadow Foreign Secretary Michael Ancram MP. "[T]he British people don’t want us to stay in Iraq a moment longer, nor do our soldiers fighting there and, most importantly, nor do the vast majority of the Iraqi people…We have no place in Iraq any more…We don’t need to set a timetable. We are within a few hours of the border by road, and even less by air. If we decide to get out we can do so almost instantaneously” (‘End the Iraq Obscenity’, New Statesman, 7 Jun).

Former UK Ambassador to Washington, Sir Christopher Meyer. "I personally believe that the presence of American and British and coalition forces is making things worse, not only inside Iraq but in the wider region around Iraq. The arguments against staying for any greater length of time themselves strengthen with every day that passes.” (Guardian, 6 Jun)

The Church of Scotland. In May the Church’s General Assembly agreed that UK forces could “no longer be seen as a positive contribution to resolving the situation” and that they should be withdrawn “as soon as possible” (Press Association Newsdesk, 23 May).

The Lib Dems. In Jan, party leader Menzies Campbell called for all British troops to be out of Iraq by the end of Oct (see Voices 50).

The head of the British Army, Sir Richard Dannatt. In Oct 06, Dannatt stated that “[We should] get ourselves out [of Iraq] sometime soon because our presence exacerbates the security problems.”

Other British soldiers:
Private Paul Barton (27), who completed his second tour in Iraq this Apr: “We have overstayed our welcome now. It’s a lost battle. We should pull out and call it quits” (Independent, 27 Apr).
Anonymous serving British Army captain with experience in Iraq: “Given a free choice most of us would never have invaded Iraq, and certainly would have withdrawn long ago” (email to Newsnight, 6 Jun).

General Sir Michael Rose, former SAS commander: “ It is the soldiers who have been telling me from the frontline that the war they have been fighting is a hopeless war” (BBC, 3 May). “There is no way we are going to win the war and [we should] withdraw and accept defeat …” (Scotsman, 2 Jun).
A Majority of Iraqis. In a Sept 06 poll conducted by the Program on International Policy Attitudes,71% of Iraqis backed full withdrawal of all foreign troops within a year (ie. by Oct 07). In a Feb poll, 53% of Iraqis said that they thought the security situation would be ‘a great deal better’ (29%) or ‘a little better’ (24%) ‘in the immediate weeks following a withdrawal of Multi National Forces’ (tinyurl.com/38ky5f). Only 11% thought that it would be ‘a great deal’ worse. In May, a majority of Iraq’s 275-member Parliament ‘signed a petition for a timetable governing a withdrawal of American troops’ from Iraq (New York Times, 12 May).

A majority of the British public. In a 26-28 Mar YouGov poll, 59% of people in Great Britain said that all British troops should be brought home ‘more or less immediately’ (tinyurl.com/24rear).

In a 5-7 Jun YouGov poll, 77% backed a timetable for the withdrawal of all British forces from Iraq: 37% ‘as soon as possible, and certainly within the next six months’; 40% for a time-limit of 12–18 months (tinyurl.com/2owwlb).
43% of the US public. 43% of Americans think that all US troops should be withdrawn from Iraq immediately (19%) or by next spring (24%) (Newsweek poll, 11-12 Jul).
The New York Times. In a historic 8 Jul editorial, the NYT wrote: ‘It is time for the United States to leave Iraq, without any more delay than the Pentagon needs to organize an orderly exit …keeping troops in Iraq will only make things worse… The political decision should be made, and the target date set, now… This country faces a choice. We can go on allowing Mr. Bush to drag out this war without end or purpose. Or we can insist that American troops are withdrawn as quickly and safely as we can manage - with as much effort as possible to stop the chaos from spreading.’ [The NYT still supports the US “right” to continue attacking Iraq from the air however - either from the Kurdish autonomous zone in northern Iraq, or from bases in the region.]
The Financial Times.“Iraq’s political leaders … give every sign of believing that US forces will prevent a descent into total anarchy and that they can therefore carry on with winner-takes-all politics, displaying all the statesmanship of militia commanders. If the US presence is encouraging Iraq’s leaders to resist all compromise, it is perhaps time to see if the certainty of US withdrawal will concentrate their minds” (14 Jun)

.… and who doesn’t.

* Gordon Brown: At his first Prime Minster’s Questions on 4 July, Brown stated that “it would be wrong to set a timetable at this stage” (Hansard, 4 Jul, Col. 954)

* Almost all UK MPs: As at 16 Jul, only 14 MPs have signed Early Day Motion (EDM) 335, calling for the immediate withdrawal of all British forces from Iraq, and only twenty-six signed EDM 1777, ‘call[ing] upon the new Prime Minister to announce as his first act in office a timetable for the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq.

’Write to your MP. Use the above info to urge them to sign EDM 335.
Get hold of copies of voices free postcard (see above) and circulate them in your local church, mosque, union branch etc…Bombing civilians“When you’re on top of the enemy you look, shoot and it’s ‘You die, you die, you die’ … I really enjoy it. I told my wife, if I could come home every night then this would be the perfect job” – US 1st Lt Jack Denton (26), Afghanistan (Sunday Telegraph, 29 Apr).
“ We insisted on reserving the right to bomb niggers” – Lloyd George (British Prime Minister 1916 – 1922), ‘[n]oting approvingly that British diplomacy had prevented [a] 1932 disarmament convention from banning bombardment of civilians’ (Chomsky, Year 501, p23).