‘‘We come here today to speak out against this war, an imperialist war, a war for profit, not for people, a war for death, not for people, a war against the working class not for justice’’. These are the words of Jonathan Hutto, from a group representing a 1,000 active duty US soldiers who have come out in opposition to the war in Iraq.

He was speaking at a 500,000 strong anti-war demonstration in Washington DC on 27 January. This shows the growing opposition to the Iraq war in the US and particularly Bush’s new "surge". At the demonstration a spokesperson from Iraqi Veterans Against the War said their membership had quadrupled in size in the past year. According to some polls, over two thirds of Americans are opposed to this new offensive in Iraq which has meant that an extra 21,500 US troops have been sent there.

Iraqi people can expect the occupation of their country to become more brutal with this new offensive by US forces. An illustration of this was shown on 28 January when more than 200 Iraqis were killed by US and British warplanes, backed up by Iraqi security forces, during an attack on the city of Najaf in southern Iraq. Up until now more than 655,000 people have been killed as a result of the occupation along with more than 3,000 US soldiers.

The chaos and the sectarian violence that the occupation has helped to fuel has meant horror without end for the people of Iraq. This has been shown by the numbers of Iraqis that have been forced to flee their homes. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) a total of two million Iraqis have fled the country and are continuing to leave at a rate of 100,000 every month. There are now 700,000 and 600,000 Iraqis respectively living in neighbouring Syria and Jordan according to the UNHCR. However many believe that these figure actually underestimate the numbers that have fled! In Iraq itself more than 1.7 million have been internally displaced. This and the fact that Syria and Jordan are likely to close their borders to refugees from Iraq will lead to a humanitarian disaster.

The presence of imperialist occupying forces in Iraq can only produce more misery, death and destruction. The demonstration in Washington DC shows the outlines of how a mass movement can be built of workers, veterans, soldiers and young people to bring all US troops home. Such a movement should be linked in with a fight against the capitalist profit system and its representatives such as Bush who have waged this war. Here in Ireland it is no coincidence that the same government that is allowing our health service to remain chronically under funded while giving massive tax breaks to big business, is supporting this war for oil and profit by allowing the US military refuel in Shannon Airport. A similar mass movement needs to be built to end this criminal compliance by the Irish government.

Socialist Youth, fully supports the right of the Iraqi people to resist the occupation of their country. Such a resistance movement needs to unite all of Iraq’s workers and poor in opposition to imperialism and sectarianism in their country. A resistance movement such as this can fight for a democratic socialist Iraq where its vast resources are owned, controlled and utilised in the interests of working people.