DON'T oppose the war, support our troops, was the cry during March.

Let us reflect on what has happened. Relatives of our servicemen and women have had to provide basic kit for them.

The Ministry of Defence continues to use all its power to resist giving them post conflict support. Nothing new in that.

Once the Spanish Armada was safely beaten Elizabeth I refused to pay her sailors!

No weapons of mass destruction have been found and Mr Straw is now telling us that they probably weren't there but no matter. No link with al-Qaeda has been established. Most of our casualties were due to 'friendly fire', more accurately described as trigger happy incompetence by our 'allies'.

Apparently an American officer has accused a British officer of mistreating Iraqi prisoners in breach of the Geneva Convention.

Mr Rumsfeld accused the Iraqi Army of breaching the Geneva Convention.

All this despite the US military shooting first and asking questions afterwards, thereby killing car loads of women and children, and defying the Geneva Convention over the detention of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. Full marks Bush & Co for hypocrisy.

It is now six weeks since the US military machine took control of Baghdad. The hospitals were looted, the museum was looted, everything, except the oil ministry (what a surprise) was looted. Still Saddam has gone so the Iraqis must be better off mustn't they?

Well a lot of Iraqis and Iraqi leaders are beginning to wonder about that. The water and sewage systems are still not repaired and Iraqi children are still dying in large numbers every day.

One big 'achievement' of the US/UK intervention, both in Iraq and Afghanistan, as a result of post war stupidity, is to hugely increase the number of terrorists, as recent events in Riyadh and elsewhere demonstrate.

Even the Bush administration now admits that the 'war on terror' is not being won. There will always be fanatics, but one surely does not pursue policies which are guaranteed to swell their numbers.

Millions of Americans, along with millions of Brits, most Europeans, and almost all Muslims, still see this war as an example of the imperialist agenda of Bush & Co.

This agenda is stripping Americans of their own democracy.

The evidence that this is a correct view is massive and mounting. Let us hope that our Government will see sense at some point and distance itself from Bush. To do so would actually be pro-American, pro-democracy & pro-peace.

Mike Turner, Lightburne Avenue, St Annes on Sea