26th August 2007

Gordon Brown will make a statement on Iraq when parliament returns in October. Nationally a new campaign is calling on him to bring all British troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan immediately and to use his October statement to break from George Bush's foreign policy.

Opinion polls show that two thirds of the British people want the troops out of Iraq now and only six per cent think the war in Afghanistan is being won. Amnesty has warned the Middle East is on the verge of a new humanitarian crisis unless more assistance is given to more than 3 million people displaced by the conflict in Iraq. The UK government's own scientists have advised that research last October estimating 650,000 Iraqi civilian deaths since the US/British invasion of Iraq in March 2003 was robust and reliable.

British military leaders have made it clear that they think the game is up in Iraq, or as Major General Richard Dannatt puts it, "We should get ourselves out sometime soon because our presence exacerbates the security problems".

There have been 300 attacks in the last two months on Britain troops, who are now being killed at a higher rate than at any time in the past four years. In the words of one soldier, they are on a nightly "suicide mission". Meanwhile the cost has risen above $500 billion. Greens were the only political party to oppose both wars from the start: the results are even worse than we imagined. I would urge people to write to Gordon Brown now calling for an end.

Elinor Croxall, Stroud District Green party, Painswick, Stroud GL6 6XR