1) Te Wests last operation in Iraq ended

just three years ago. For those with a

short memory it didnt go well. More than
half a million people died, millions ed
the country and Iraqs infrastructure was
devastated. Te operation generated deep
resentment against the West.
2) Te current chaos in Iraq including
the rise of the reactionary Isis is largely
the result of the eight years of that
occupation.
On top of the trauma of the assault,
sectarian division was built into the
operation. Elections were organised along
communal lines and the authorities used
sectarianism to undermine resistance.
By 2006, Baghdad had been turned
from an integrated, modern city into a
patchwork of ruined communal ghetoes.
Te open discrimination of the Western-
backed Maliki government detonated a
Sunni insurgency last year that helped fuel
the rise of Isis in Iraq.
3) Bombing always kills and terrorises
civilians. Recent coalition bombing raids
on Raqqa in Syria have brought death and
panic to its residents. One civilian there
told western reporters I would not wish
them on my worst enemy.
4) All three of Britains major military
interventions in the last thirteen years
have been disasters.
In 2001 we were told an invasion of
Afghanistan would rout the Taliban.
Tirteen years and tens of thousands of
deaths later the Taliban have grown in
strength and the country is broken.
Te bombing of Libya in 2011 was
justied as essential to stop a massacre
by Gadda. After it began an estimated
30,000 were killed in a terrifying cycle of
violence. Te country is now a failed state
with no real government.
5) Te coalition that has been put together
for the bombing of Syria apparently in
an eort to give the attacks legitimacy
comprises some of the most ruthless and
benighted regimes in the region.
Human Rights Watch reports that
nineteen people were beheaded in Saudi
Aarbia in August.
Qatar and UAE have notorious human
rights records that include the use of
forced labour. All three have funded
violent Jihadi groups in the region.
6) Bombing raids will increase hatred of
the west. One of the wider results of the
War on Terror has been to spread Al-
Quaida and other terrorist groups across
whole regions of the world.
In 2001 there were relatively small
numbers of such militants, centred mainly
on Pakistan. Now there are groups across
the middle east, central Asia and Africa.
7) Te timing is cynical. David Cameron
has recalled parliament to debate an
attack on Iraq just two days before the
start of the last Tory Conference before
the general election. Tis at a time when
he is engaged in pushing a right wing,
nationalist agenda for party political
purposes.
8) Mission creep is almost inevitable.
Tere are already more than a thousand
US military active in Iraq and senior US
military gures are arguing they should
now be openly involved in ghting.
In Britain a growing number of voices
from Tony Blair to Lieutenant General
Sir Graeme Lamb are recommending
British boots on the ground.
9) Te attack will cost money much
needed for other things. One Tomahawk
cruise missile costs 850,000, enough to
pay the annual salary of 28 NHS nurses.
Te US has already red about 50 of these
missiles at Isis targets in Syria.
It is estimated Britain spent between
500 million and one billion pounds
bombing Libya in 2011.
Tis was roughly the same as the
savings made by ending the education
maintenance allowance (EMA); or three
times the amount saved by scrapping the
disability living allowance.
Why we shouldnt
bomb Iraq and Syria
Please adapt this model letter and send it
to your local MP and newspapers:
Bombing will make the ISIS problem
worse.
Along with most British people, we
opposed an attack on Iraq in 2003.
Te brutal reality of the invasion and
occupation conrmed our worst fears. At
least half a million died and the country
was devastated.
Now, less than three years after US troops
were pulled out, the US is bombing again.
Te British government is considering
joining military action, not just in Iraq but
in Syria too.
All the experience of the varied military
action taken by the west in Afghanistan,
Iraq and Libya shows that such
interventions kill innocents, destroy
infrastructure and fragment societies,
and in the process spread bitterness and
violence.
While we all reject the politics and
methods of Isis, we have to recognise that
it is in part a product of the last disastrous
intervention, which helped foster
sectarianism and regional division. It has
also been funded and aided by some of the
wests allies, especially Saudi Arabia.
More bombing, let alone boots on the
ground, will only exacerbate the situation.
We urge the government to rule out any
further military action in Iraq or Syria.
stopwar.org.uk lofce@stopwar.org.uk l 020 7561 4830
Stop the War Coalition
Model letter