500 attend Exeter Stop War Meeting

devon | protests | news report Tuesday March 09, 2004 19:49 by Mike G liz-mike at tiscali dot co dot uk

George Galloway MP, Ghada Razuki (Stop The War Coalition) and Shabir Ahmed (Exeter Islamic Centre) spoke to a packed meeting of 500 people last night on \"After Hutton...Iraq...the war ...the lies...the future\"

BEST EXETER ANTI-WAR MEETING EVER
HEARS MP GEORGE GALLOWAY CONDEMN BLAIR AND BRADSHAW

Exeter Stop the War Coalition held its best attended public meeting ever last night (8th March), when 500 people in Exeter\'s St George\'s Hall heard well-known MP George Galloway condemn the war in Iraq.

Speaking after the meeting, Exeter Stop the War spokesperson Lizi Alnatt said,

\"This was our best attended public meeting ever. It shows there is still massive concern at a sordid, criminal war in which thousands of Iraqi people and hundreds of US and British soldiers have been needlessly killed or maimed, along with billions of pounds of taxpayers\' money wasted.\"

During the meeting George Galloway praised the work of the Exeter Stop the War Coalition, and ongoing support for the anti-war movement in Exeter. In contrast he described Exeter MP Ben Bradshaw as a \"militant militarist\" and one of the chief backers of the Government\'s line on Iraq, challenging him to a public debate, at a venue of Ben Bradshaw\'s choosing, to argue the case given for war. He also described PM Tony Blair as one of the main villains of the Iraq invasion, since Britain acted as the main prop to George W Bush\'s plans, without which the USA President would have found it far harder to justify its action.

Speaking before the meeting George Galloway said, \"War on \'terror\' was used as the excuse to invade Iraq, but in reality this was about acquiring Iraq\'s oil and other assets, and asserting US military dominance. These people, who believe the world is theirs to carve up at will are not liberators, but tyrants in their own right.\"