No reason to stay

Justice for Iraq will never of course concede that there ever was a good reason for British or any other foreign troops to be occupying Iraq. But if Iraq is now an "emergent democracy" then the wishes of the Iraqi Parliament should be taken as final marching orders to get out now!

Then there will not be any problems with the legal status of any troops. From then on any help and advice offered to the Iraqi people could be on their terms and not on the terms of the occupiers.

The latest Iraq Occupation Focus newsletter makes interesting reading. As the formal military occupation starts to be wound down the prospects for Iraq in terms of human rights and access to basic services such a decent water supply are extremely bleak.

Human rights and Iraq now: the results of Liberal intervention

When pressed about Iraq these days the warmongers (Jack Straw on a recent Any Questions springs to mind) usually fall back on the argument that a dictator was overthrown and that Iraq is now a fledgling democracy. You get the feeling that the neo-cons and associated new labour henchmen can actually feel quietly satisfied.

This is all nonsense. Anmesty International reports that the legal system is a travesty. This is perphaps not unexpected as the country is ruled by death squads and the instutional forms have been nurtured under the watchful eyes of the US Republican establishment.

That is if you manage to get in front of a court when the occupiers arrest you. More likely you will be held without trail as legal processes are not seen as neither here nor there by the occupiers.More likely you would be held as a "risk" in other words regardless of your innocence and the lack of evidence resulting from your innocence.Indeed your only crime might be working for Reuters.

Just the sort of situation that a home secretary near you can deport people back to face continuing serious human rights abuses.