A certain nauseous feeling always arises, when in my sister's car. It is always when we enter Total petrol station. It is not the scent of the petroleum that gives me a sickly feeling. It is in fact, the notion, that the Prime Minister of Burma is under house arrest, as her citizens cannot afford the fuel and food costs of the illegal government under the nom de jeure of Myanmer. A government that spends more on military processions than the welfare of Burmese people. A vile regime based on supernatural jingoism, enfused with pseudo-communism.

As the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq approaches a new report from Amnesty International has described the human rights situation in the country as ‘disastrous.’

 

The Prime Minister is committed to an inquiry " to learn all possible lessons from the military action in Iraq and its aftermath". The commitment came in a reply to my letter, to him, arguing that the 5th anniversary of the war would be the appropriate time to announce an inquiry, Gordon Brown wrote that "there will come a time when it is appropriate to hold an inquiry" however he also states his view "that time is not now".

I'm a few years away from being a young person myself, but I have seen several generations of parents shake their heads in despair at young people, saying they have no respect, no discipline, and no politics, but in my experience, that's far from true today.

The strength of feeling of young people against the Iraq war created an extremely political generation, perhaps more so now than at any time since the 60's. But it's certainly true that people are more interested in issue politics rather than party politics, which is a shame, because party politics gives you a real chance to change things, rather than simply protest about them.

The Independent reports that the government has "backtracked over demands for an independent inquiry into the mistakes made in the run-up to and aftermath of the invasion of Iraq", based on David Miliband's interview in the new year Fabian Review.

A Houston, Texas woman says she was gang-raped by Halliburton/KBR coworkers in Baghdad, and the company and the U.S. government are covering up the incident.

Jamie Leigh Jones, now 22, says that after she was raped by multiple men at a KBR camp in the Green Zone, the company put her under guard in a shipping container with a bed and warned her that if she left Iraq for medical treatment, she'd be out of a job.

The full (heart-wrenching) story is here: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=3977702&page=1

I have only one question: How do we make sure nothing of this sort happens to a Briton?

This morning I attended the Remembrance Sunday service at the historic 12th century West Ham Parish Church of All Saints.

I think, like most people, it is important that we remember today the sacrifices past and present that British servicemen and women have made on our behalf.

Even if you don’t agree with today’s war in Afghanistan and Iraq, there are still ordinary British servicemen and women (and many UNISON members who are military reservists) risking their lives and this is a time to think of them and their families.

Good news - but for how long?

As many may have seen today, Harman has denied the comments she made about Iraq on the Newsnight Debate. I think like many people, in that Harman made these comments for support in the contest. Is there an element of truth in that she had doubts about going to war? And, just out of curiosity, who were the cabinet members hostile to going to war at the time (other than Cook or Short)?

Is it hypocritical to support one military action and not the other? I'm actually not sure. I'm not old enough to remember UK going into Kosovo, but I think I would have been for military intervention in the Balkans. There are some who are always against these interventions, people like Tony Benn etc. There are also conservitives like Malcolm Rifkind who was against intervention in Kosovo and Iraq. There are others who shared the views of Robin Cook, for the first war, not the other. Another Hitchenesque school of thought is always confusing, defining missiling Sudan as a war crime, but, defending the intervention of Iraq. I was against intervention in Iraq from the start. Does it make me hypocritical? I think on the basis that Milosovic was threatning other countries and ethnic blocs. But I didn't believe Iraq was threatning other countries, the failiure to get a second UN resoloution, the faulty intelligance etc. were the reasons for my opposition. Hussein was obviously lots of things which I won't choose to say on a Sunday morning. If the 'Blairesque' school of thought is to be believed, then we would also have to intervene in Belarus, Burma, Zimbabwe, China, North Korea, Sudan, Venezuela, Cuba, Iran and many other countries. And I'm sure, that many bloggers would like to see intervention in some of these countries, but not others.

I have just seen this video on youtube:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heWJuAPO9zw

Tony Blair's legacy is a more social democratic Britain than the government has often admitted. But Iraq means that he leaves British foreign policy in flux as rarely before. How will Gordon Brown respond?

This afternoon I was invited to attend the Newham Launch of "Muslim Friends of Labour" (MFL) at Minhaj Ul-Qur'an International Mosque, Forest Gate, London E7. Cabinet Minster and local MP, Stephen Timms, Chief Secretary Treasury, was the guest speaker.

The Government got it right over dealing with the capture of the 15 sailors and marine personnel in Iran.Now the spectacularly underwhelming Defence Minister Des Browne has scored a spectacular own goal by allowing the captives to sell their stories in the newspapers.

Defence & Foreign Policy After Blair
A conference for Labour Party members and activists.
Organised by Labour Against the War in conjunction with Labour CND and Labour Action for Peace

Michael Meacher on the need for a wholly different approach to foreign policy, opposition to any attack on Iran and the need to reduce dependency on oil.

(From the People's Assembly against the War, London Tuesday 20th March)

Dick Cheney's Chief Of Staff Lewis Scooter-Libby, central role in planning the Iraq War  and stifling critics of it, just been found guilty of lying to Grand Jury.