Timothy Garton Ash on Iraq and 7/7

It was right to drive Al Qaeda out of Afghanistan. By contrast, it becomes increasingly clear that the invasion of Iraq was a mistake, almost certainly creating more terrorists that it eliminated. But now we have to make the best of a bad job there. The last thing we should do in response to this attack is to scuttle out of Iraq. On the contrary, now is the time for all democracies to rally round the cause of building a peaceful and halfway free Iraq, while insisting on further changes in occupation policy from a sobered United States, no longer infused with the neoconservative hubris of three years ago.
A peace settlement between Israel and Palestine would remove another great recruiting sergeant for Islamist terrorists. And, yes, working toward the modernization, liberalization and eventual democratization of the wider Middle East is the only certain, long-term way to drain the swamp in which terrorist mosquitoes breed. Here, it is Europe rather than the United States that needs to wake up, urgently, to the imperative of doing more. See here. (hat tip, MA)

LFIQ letter in Guardian

“The real solution lies in immediately ending the occupations of Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine,” says Tariq Ali in a classic confusion of cause and consequence. September 11 preceded the removal of the Taliban and the invasion of Iraq. The perpetrators of 7/7 seek a 7th-century Islamic Caliphate, not the resumption of the roadmap. A precipitate withdrawal from Iraq isn’t sought by most Iraqis and would create a security void in which a democratic constitution and the rights of unions and women could be consumed by sectarian strife. It could also force the Kurds into a unilateral declaration of independence and threaten a regional conflagration.
The terrorist outrages in London should strengthen our resolve to back, not abandon, Iraqi democrats, and increase our determination to see through the UN-backed political process in Iraq, not hand Iraqis over to Tariq Ali’s “resistance”. (9 July)
Alan Johnson
Jane Ashworth
Labour Friends of Iraq

Joint letter from the iraqi Community Association and LFIQ to the Times

Letter sent to the Times
Your leader (Revulsion and Resolve, 8 July) rightly warns that the Muslim community in Britain should not be victimised. Just as Irish people were rightly not held responsible for IRA atrocities nor should Muslim Londoners. We would add that the success of Iraqi democratisation will powerfully undermine a miniscule minority which supports a sectarian war of civilisations, here and on a daily basis in Iraq. We appeal, therefore, to the British public to assist Iraqi democrats as they struggle for a democratic, federal, united and secular Iraq. It is a common cause of humanity.
Yours sincerely
Jabbar Hasan, Director, Iraqi Community Association (www.iraqicommunity.org)
Gary Kent, Director, Labour Friends of Iraq (www.labourfriendsofiraq.org.uk)
Hammersmith
London

LFIQ Statement on the 7/7 atrocities in London

We unreservedly condemn the attacks today on ordinary Londoners and mourn the loss of life and hundreds of injuries. There is no justification whatsoever for these attacks and we hope that the perpetrators are swiftly brought to justice and that popular vigilance and security action will prevent any further attacks. We do not yet know who carried out these murderous assaults but they have all the hallmarks of terrorist actions in New York, Washington, Bali and Madrid. We hope that no one will take the law into their own hands, as some did against the Irish community when the Provisional IRA bombed England in the early 70s, and attack Muslims. Those who carried out these attacks wish to foment sectarian strife and we should not play into their hands.
Gary Kent, Director, Labour Friends of Iraq