Presentations

Iraq is unraveling...

In Iraq today ordinary Iraqis live in fear for their lives. Millions of people have been forced to leave their homes, displaced within the country or crossing the border as refugees into Syria and Jordan. It is the single biggest movement of people in the Middle East since the 1948 Palestinian refugee crisis.

US and UK troops still occupy the country and seem intent on making the occupation ever more brutal - 655,000 Iraqis have died as a result of the invasion according to The Lancet. US troops are now constructing a monument to their own 'divide' tactic in the form of a wall around a Sunni area of Baghdad. To top it all the occupiers are pressuring their puppet government to pass an oil law allowing the direct plundering of Iraq's oil wealth by the Western oil companies.

The media along with US and UK politicians seek to blame the Iraqi people for the disasters of the last four years. We are led to believe that the Iraqi people are not capable of governing themselves. This is to hide the responsibility that the US and UK governments have for a war that they should not have started, and to silence the clamour of voices demanding an end to the occupation.

Join us to unravel the picture presented by the mainstream media - and discuss how we can help end the occupation of Iraq.

About the speakers...

Dahr Jamail is an independent journalist based in the Middle East. Since 2003 he has gained a reputation for bravery and honesty as one of the few unembedded reporters in Iraq, with his Iraq Dispatches blog being required reading for many in the anti-war movement. More recently based in Lebanon, Dahr writes for the Inter Press Service, The Asia Times and many other outlets. He also continues to blog at http://dahrjamailiraq.com.

Haifa Zangana is an Iraqi exile and novelist who also writes for the Guardian. She has been a staunch opponent of the war and occupation of Iraq.

Tariq Ali is a well-known writer and broadcaster. He has been a trenchant critic of the War of Terror waged by Bush and Blair and their cohorts since 2001.

Iraq Occupation Focus is a London-based group campaigning for an end to the occupation of Iraq. It holds monthly open meetings on the second Thursday of the month at the Indian YMCA, 41 Fitzroy Square, London W1T 6AQ. Next meeting Thursday 14 June, all welcome.

www.iraqoccupationfocus.org.uk | iraqfocus (at) riseup (dot) net