I cannot emphasize enough how much I loathe Saddam Hussein's fascistic dictatorship. It is brutal and reactionary, and it must be destroyed.

But a war driven by British and American imperialism is not the way to go about it.

America couldn't care less for the Iraqi people. This is not a war of 'liberation.' Let's not forget that America helped put, and keep, Hussein in power, and indeed sold him the WMD that he may or may not have.

The argument of 'he's a threat to our safety' is nonsense. He might be a reactionary bastard, but he is still the ruler of a nation state. He cannot act in the same way as a terrorist organisation like Al'Qaeda. Saddam IS a threat - to his own people. And an American war will NOT act in their interests. Capitalism knows no compassion.

To give a parallel - last year, India and Pakistan were engaged in a conflict that threatened to turn nuclear. Both countries openly admitted to having WMD and even said they were prepared to use them. No-one advocated an American war as the solution to that conflict.

If any nation is likely to use WMD in the near future, it's America. Bush is a madman with his finger on the button, yelling with childlike glee 'can I push it yet? Can I push it yet?'

There is no conflict between opposing the war and opposing Saddam. Indeed, those who oppose Saddam should also logically oppose the war. Will America not, having deposed the Ba'athist Regime, not install a similarly dictatorial ruler who is merely more pro-West and will give them all their oil?

I am, for my sins, a passionate Trotskyist, and the people I support to overthrow Saddam is the Iraqi working-class. You might argue that 30 years of fascistic oppression has left them incapable of such a significant act, but one only needs to turn the clock back 12 years to the Gulf War, when there was an uprising against Saddam Hussein. America promised to back this uprising, but withdrew at the last minute. The uprising was crushed and the revolutionaries slaughtered. If America was really concerned for the welfare of the Iraqi people, would it have done this?

Perhaps international financial aid is needed for such an uprising to succeed, but a war that will act only in the interests of imperialist capitalism, a war that will murder hundreds of innocent people, is certainly not the answer.

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Shalom Rubenstein (my god...that was long...sorry guys...)