Only a few hours remain until the United States and Britain commit aggression against the people of Iraq. They will do so in contravention of international law and against the wishes of millions of people throughout the world, 10 million of whom participated in anti-war rallies in all corners of the earth on 15 February 2003.
In London, England, up to 2 million people attended an anti-war demonstration on that date, yet the British prime minister, Tony Blair, remains intent on aiding and abetting George W. Bush in his criminal war against the Iraqi people - in contempt of the vast majority of the British people and members of his own Labour Party.
This war is neither about weapons of mass destruction nor about human rights in Iraq. It is about cheap oil for the United States and about maintaining Israel's overwhelming military superiority in the Middle East. Once Iraq is conquered, it will be obliged to sell super-cheap oil to the United States, and it will cease to constitute the remotest threat to Israel's supremacy in the region.
Nor is this war about forcing Iraq to abide by United Nations resolutions. Yes, Iraq is in breach of 17 Security Council resolutions, but the state of Israel - the only nuclear power in the Middle East - is in breach of 68 Security Council resolutions. But who is talking of war against Israel?
And yes, Iraq's human rights record is abominable, but so is Israel's. According to the UN High Commission on Human Rights, Israel is guilty of "grave and massive violations of the human rights of the Palestinian people" and of "widespread, systematic and gross violations of human rights", including "mass killings and collective punishments, such as demolition of houses and closure of the Palestinian territories, measures which constitute war crimes and flagrant violations of international humanitarian law and crimes against humanity".
But it is the Iraqi people, not the apartheid state of Israel, that are about to face the full might of the Bush-Blair war machines, despite the opposition of the overwhelming majority of the people of the world.
"The moment the bombing of Iraq begins, we should stop for one hour. We should remember the women of Baghdad who will be widows, the children who will become orphans.
"I've never said this before. Non-violent resistance to the government will show they cannot claim to do this in our name. We should stop the buses, stop the trains, stop the schools.
"Everyone here should raise the threat of war in their schools, places of worship, where they work and live. We could be facing a Third World War, triggered by stupid men.
"A cowardly air/cruise missile attack on Iraq seems inevitable. This time the peace movement may be ready to respond.
"The USA, the world's superpower, vs Iraq, one of the weakest countries on earth."
These are the words of Tony Benn, a former British Member of Parliament and one of the few British politicians with any principles. We strongly urge you to follow them the moment aggression starts against the people of Iraq. We also urge you to keep visiting the website of the Stop the War Coalition for the latest advise on what to do when the Anglo-American aggression starts.
We urge our British readers never to forget Tony Blair's role in all this. Though a junior partner of George Bush, his role has been to provide a fig-leaf of "legitimacy" for the US aggression against the Iraqi people, so that Bush can claim to be leading a "coalition of the willing". As such, Blair had enormous bargaining power vis-a-vis Bush, which he could have wielded at least one year ago in favour of a peaceful solution. But he did not.
Do not forget Tony Blair. Do not forget that, in May this year, there will be local council elections in Britain. Use these elections to deliver a resounding humiliation to Blair's Labour Party. A vote for Labour will be interpreted as a vote for Blair's war policies. The Labour Party will not get rid of Blair unless it thinks that he has become an electoral liability. Use these elections to tell the Labour Party that it can remain in power only without Blair.
Do not be influenced by the fact that, in purely military terms, this war will inevitably be a short one. Iraq's demoralized, virtually unpaid, poorly equipped and badly led conscript army is absolutely no match for the firepower of two of the most powerful states on earth. But, even by the most modest estimates, tens of thousands of Iraqis will die and hundreds of thousands will be maimed. And the chaos that this war will leave in its wake will reverberate in the Middle East and throughout the world for generations to come.
Do not vote Labour, but do not vote for the Conservatives either. They have been Blair's staunchest allies in the proposed aggression against the people of Iraq. Punish them as hard as you punish Blair, for the sake of justice, world order and the dignity of your own country.
If you cannot vote for any other party, then spoil your ballot. Write on your ballot paper "I will not vote for warmongers".
To our friends in the British Labour Party, especially those who belong to the Labour Against the War Coalition, we urge you to redeem and reclaim your party. Get rid of the scourge of warmongers. Get rid of Blair and his cronies and sycophants. Let the day of reckoning come sooner rather than later.