Escalation Of War In Iraq And Vietnam

EDM number 1755 in 2003-04, proposed by Llew Smith on 18/10/2004.

That this House recalls that the last time an American administration put pressure on a British Labour government to provide troops to back the United States' plans to escalate an ill-judged war was in 1970 over Vietnam; remembers that this House debated the request on 5th May 1970, on a motion proposed by a former leader of the Labour party, the then honourable Member for Ebbw Vale. Michael Foot, who put the argument that day that the escalating events can have the gravest consequences for us all; notes that he pleaded that in his opinion it was 'sheer despair for people to say that nothing that we can do or say can have much influence on such distant occurrences and keep our mouths shut, and possibly keep our eyes closed as well', Official Report, 5th May 1970, column 208; agrees with his prediction that 'the military machine of the United States can create a wilderness and desolation, but it can never win a victory in Vietnam', Official Report, 5th May 1970, column 214; and therefore calls upon the Prime Minister to follow his predecessor's example from 34 years ago and refuse to co-operate with American plans to escalate this immoral and illegal war in its planned siege of Fallujah.

This motion has been signed by a total of 24 MPs.