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White hell
Photograph by
Islay McLeod
The tenth anniversary of the Bush/Blair war in Iraq needs to be recognised for what it was: an unjust, illegal and immoral military intervention.
It was wrong at the outset based upon justifications that at best were ‘created’ from the flimsiest of evidence and indeed lies. It was wrong in the manner in which it was executed based upon a barbarous principle called ‘shock and awe’ that killed indiscriminately thousands of non-combatives and exiled many more. It was also very wrong in the manner in which it has left Iraq a hideously divided, angry country in an almost permanent state of civil war.
The Scottish Parliament was unable to hold a proper debate on the war as it was deemed a non-devolved matter by the Scottish Labour/Liberal government; however motions put by the SNP and the SSP were defeated by just a handful of votes. The real debate took place in Westminster on 18 March when the Blair government and some Labour MPs in coalition with the Tories voted for an iniquitous war that history already has condemned.
Those MPs from Scotland who attached their names to that dreadful decision should be remembered:
Irene Adams (Paisley North)
Douglas Alexander (Paisley South)
Gordon Brown (Dunfermline East)
Russell Brown (Dumfries)
Des Browne (Kilmarnock & Loudoun)
David Cairns (Greenock & Inverclyde) (now deceased)
Dr Lynda Clark (Edinburgh Pentlands)
Alistair Darling (Edinburgh Central)
George Foulkes (Carrick, Cumnock & Doon Valley)
Nigel Griffiths (Edinburgh South)
Tom Harris (Glasgow Cathcart)
Adam Ingram (East Kilbride)
Eric Joyce (Falkirk West)
Helen Liddell (Airdrie & Shotts)
Tommy McAvoy (Glasgow Rutherglen)
Calum MacDonald (Western Isles)
John MacDougall (Fife Central)
John McFall (Dumbarton)
Anne McGuire (Stirling)
Rosemary McKenna (Cumbernauld & Kilsyth)
Dr Lewis Moonie (Kirkcaldy)
Martin O’Neill (Ochil)
Anne Picking (East Lothian)
Dr John Reid (Hamilton North & Bellshill)
Ernie Ross (Dundee West)
Frank Roy (Motherwell & Wishaw)
James Sheridan (Renfrewshire West)
Rachel Squire (Dunfermline West) (now deceased)
David Stewart (Inverness East, Nairn & Lochaber)
Brian Wilson (Cunninghame North)
Thom Cross is a writer and dramatist
