Labour MPs blame bombings on Iraq war

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Sunday July 17, 2005 10:10

by Ma

Labour MPs blame bombings on Iraq war

from english independent

Labour MPs blame bombings on Iraq war
By Colin Brown and Andrew Grice
Published: 16 July 2005
The uneasy truce inside the Labour Party over the London bombings ended last night as an ex-cabinet minister and left-wing Labour MPs linked the attacks with the war in Iraq.

Left-wing Labour MPs said they would use a conference in London today to pile the pressure on Tony Blair to hasten the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq. And Clare Short, the former cabinet minister, said in a television interview to be broadcast tomorrow that she "had no doubt" that the bombings were connected to the Iraqi conflict.

Ms Short said the anti-terror legislation being planned by Mr Blair would act as a recruiting sergeant for the terrorists. She said it was wrong that Muslims should grow up in Britain willing to contemplate killing innocent civilians, but coupled her condemnation of the bombing with criticism of British foreign policy.

"Some of the voices that have been coming from the Government that talk as though this is all evil, and that everything we do is fine, when in fact we are implicated in the slaughter of large numbers of civilians in Iraq and supporting a Middle East policy that for the Palestinians creates this sense of double standards - that feeds anger," she said in a recorded interview for GMTV.

John McDonnell, chairman of the 500-strong Labour Representation Committee, which is staging the one-day conference, will lead calls for Britain to pull troops out of Iraq. He will tell the Prime Minister: "Please do not try to tell us that the war in Iraq played no part. This assertion is simply intellectually unsustainable. Now is the time to prevent further violence by renouncing violent solutions ourselves.

"For as long as Britain remains in occupation of Iraq, the terrorist recruiters will have the argument they seek to attract more susceptible young recruits to bomb teams. Britain must withdraw now."

Downing Street has published a list of al-Qa'ida attacks on the West from the first World Trade Centre bombing in 1993, to show that they started before the Iraq war. But a member of the left-wing Campaign Group said: "We are going to set the cat among the pigeons. No Labour MP has uttered a word about Iraq since the bombings, but they have to be seen in context.

The uneasy truce inside the Labour Party over the London bombings ended last night as an ex-cabinet minister and left-wing Labour MPs linked the attacks with the war in Iraq.

Left-wing Labour MPs said they would use a conference in London today to pile the pressure on Tony Blair to hasten the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq. And Clare Short, the former cabinet minister, said in a television interview to be broadcast tomorrow that she "had no doubt" that the bombings were connected to the Iraqi conflict.

Ms Short said the anti-terror legislation being planned by Mr Blair would act as a recruiting sergeant for the terrorists. She said it was wrong that Muslims should grow up in Britain willing to contemplate killing innocent civilians, but coupled her condemnation of the bombing with criticism of British foreign policy.

"Some of the voices that have been coming from the Government that talk as though this is all evil, and that everything we do is fine, when in fact we are implicated in the slaughter of large numbers of civilians in Iraq and supporting a Middle East policy that for the Palestinians creates this sense of double standards - that feeds anger," she said in a recorded interview for GMTV.
John McDonnell, chairman of the 500-strong Labour Representation Committee, which is staging the one-day conference, will lead calls for Britain to pull troops out of Iraq. He will tell the Prime Minister: "Please do not try to tell us that the war in Iraq played no part. This assertion is simply intellectually unsustainable. Now is the time to prevent further violence by renouncing violent solutions ourselves.

"For as long as Britain remains in occupation of Iraq, the terrorist recruiters will have the argument they seek to attract more susceptible young recruits to bomb teams. Britain must withdraw now."

Downing Street has published a list of al-Qa'ida attacks on the West from the first World Trade Centre bombing in 1993, to show that they started before the Iraq war. But a member of the left-wing Campaign Group said: "We are going to set the cat among the pigeons. No Labour MP has uttered a word about Iraq since the bombings, but they have to be seen in context.

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Comments (2 of 2)

We are now seeing the most credible Labour party "war rebels" come forward.

by iosaf

Sun Jul 17, 2005 14:09

Many of these MPs have voting records which were more "anti-war" than Galloway. Interestingly we are also seeing the rightwing move in the "withdrawl as part of a wider strategy".
Today saw amongst many opinion pieces in english sunday papers, an article looking for the roots of islamic extremism in britain and pointing the finger at the 14th of Feb. 1989. The day of the fatwa on Salmon Rushdie for the Satanic Verses arguing that the hurt caused or perceived in the british at that time 2nd generation muslim community compounded that being perceived in much of the 3rd generation.
Worth a read in balance with the article above.
And we are still waiting on the largest officially "anti-war" british party the Lib Dems to move out from under the "cross-party-say-nothing-under-COBRA-concensus"
It will be intersting to see what they say.
Meanwhile no-one can lucidly argue that
*the British staying in Iraq will in the short to medium term see the broken land of babalon fixed, or the threat of global terror reduced. Its past time to go.

[the telegraph links spoil our format open a new window cut and past both of the following lines into the browser. On a lighter note, I suppose that oik Kevin Bastard Myers is on holidays. not a peep from him for a while]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2005/07/17/
do1704.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/07/17/ixportal.html

These Labour MPs are trying to get left cover for their crimes

by Revolutionary Marxist

Sun Jul 17, 2005 16:31

Labour Party members and MPs went to war in Iraq. They support Blair. Do not think for one minute that the Labour Party have people that genuinely oppose war for profits. These Labour MPs that have one eye on their seats would be happy to have the UN occupy Iraq on their behalf. This is what the Irish branch of the Blair fan-club call for! Down with the Labour Party and all Capitalist Parties! Down with Imperialist UN!

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Labour MPs blame bombings on Iraq war

Comments (2 of 2)