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Newsletter #1257. 17 October 2012

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1) Join the Stop the War contingent on the TUC demo this Saturday
The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have cost billions of pounds in wasted money that could be spent on public services here and abroad (see StW newsletter #1256). But what about the human cost? This week a new study in Fallujah, Iraq, found more than half of all babies born between 2007 and 2010 had a birth defect. US forces spent months denying the use of white phosphorus in the city before it was revealed by one of their own internal magazines. In Basra, where Britain led the attack in 2003, the number of birth defects was a shocking seventeen times higher than prior to the invasion, yet the UK continues to deny doing anything that could contribute to a rise in birth defects. Read more on our website here: http://bit.ly/R9szWO

'A Future That Works' is the slogan of the TUC's demo this Saturday. Stop the War Coalition will be marching alongside CND. Our contingent will be calling for Troops Out of Afghanistan and Welfare Not Warfare. The only future that works is one free from war and imperialist intervention. Rebuilding the economy means dismantling the war machine.

See our new video: Why we're marching http://bit.ly/T05bx5

Assemble at 11am, Victoria Embankment by HMS President (near Temple and Blackfriars stations). Details including a map can be found on the Stop the War website: http://bit.ly/TtP9rB. The TUC is organising transport for those outside London, details here: http://bit.ly/QrJ5RK

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2) Will George Osborne join the campaign to bring the troops home from Afghanistan by Christmas?
Days after members of Military Families Against the War launched their 'Troops Home by Christmas' campaign in the Daily Mirror and with a rally in Trafalgar Square, it has transpired that chancellor George Osborne has asked why the troops are not being withdrawn immediately in an elite Whitehall meeting. Perhaps, like a majority of the British public, Mr Osborne has realised the complete futility in extending this war any further and sacrifcying any more Afghan or British lives. Read our report and see footage of the naming of the dead ceremony here: http://bit.ly/QrKms7

Although the chancellor has yet to join the Stop the War campaign, several other MPs have. You can sign the open letter to David Cameron calling for troops home by Christmas, written by military families and reported in the Daily Mirror and the Metro, by going to this page http://bit.ly/TwIli0