Iraq - 5 Years On

Speech by Liberal Democrat Group delivered to Waltham Forest Council, 20th March 2008 on Tue 25th Mar 2008

Nearly four and a half thousand men and women have lost their lives as part of the coalition forces

As an acknowledgement of the fifth anniversary of the allied invasion of Iraq on the 20th March 2003, the Liberal Democrat Group on Waltham Forest Council asked the Mayor to read a short announcement commemorating the anniversary and follow this with a minute's silence in honour of those who have lost their lives during the conflict. Cllr Bob Wheatley of William Morris ward also had a short piece published in the local Waltham Forest Guardian on this issue.

Below is the unedited text which was presented to the Council on the Liberal Democrats behalf.

"Five years ago today, American missiles were launched into Baghdad, signalling the beginning of the allied invasion of Iraq.

Since that day in 2003, nearly four and a half thousand men and women have lost their lives as part of the coalition forces. Of that four and a half thousand, one hundred and seventy six UK servicemen have been killed.

Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians have died. Some were killed in the initial allied invasion. The majority, however, have been killed as a result of the relentless, bloody violence that has plagued the country ever since it was declared in May 2003 that major combat operations were over.

During Remembrance Day ceremonies in Waltham Forest last year, families of young mothers and children stood side-by-side with those who have stood in silence on Remembrance Sunday for many years, remembering fallen comrades or lost loved ones.

Perhaps those young families were standing in silence for the first time. But like the thousands of families across the UK who have lost someone in Iraq, they will continue to stand and remember those husbands or wives, those young fathers and mothers whose absence will continue to leave a gaping hole in their lives for many years to come.

Five years on from the start of this conflict, the spotlight has slowly begun to move away from Iraq and onto those in other areas of the world who are themselves suffering as a result of violent conflict and unrest. Though whilst we might not see it in on our television screens with such regularity, the conflict in Iraq goes on, continuing to claim victims from all sides.

Whatever our own political views about the rights and wrongs of the invasion and the continuing presence and deployment of UK forces to the region, can all councillors take a moment to reflect on the tragic scale of human loss that has been suffered in Iraq since 2003.

On this poignant anniversary, all councillors' thoughts should be with those families within Waltham Forest and from all over the world for whom the loss of a loved one suffered as a result of this conflict will be a long-lasting and unhealable scar."