WHAT has been witnessed by reporters in Iraq and transmitted to our television screens in the past month can only be described as disgusting in the extreme.

Having smashed up a country of 20 million people, it has now become clear that much of the US bombing of cities and the consequent bloodshed and destruction was unnecessary.

The bombing of a restaurant with no regard for other people in an attempt to assassinate Saddam Hussein was pure gangsterism in the Godfather tradition.

If there was any doubt about the purpose of this war, it was surely removed by the priorities set by the Americans.

Troops were immediately despatched to secure the oil fields while no provision had been made to protect hospitals, shops, basic infrastructure, important records and priceless antiquities from looting and sabotage.

Impressive logistics planning and military deployment on a vast scale stood in stark contrast with the absence of any plans for civic order and the provision of clean drinking water.

The contamination caused by explosives and depleted uranium-tipped shells will probably have poisoned parts of the water table for years to come.

The discomfort of the Blair government can be seen from the attacks by ministers on the BBC that echo those by the sinister Donald Rumsfeld of any media daring to tell the truth.

This alliance with the US ultra-conservatives has seriously compromised the Labour Party and the Blair Cabinet and done critical damage to the party. It is reminiscent of the Ramsey McDonald coalition with the Tories in 1931 that left a rump of "rebel" Labour MPs to represent the party in Parliament.

That "rump" went on to win the 1945 General Election by a huge majority.

The restoration of true Labour values seems possible now only by the removal of Blair and his followers by those principled Labour MPs who oppose this war and the ultra conservative global economic agenda of the Bush conservatives.

For once it can be said without exaggerated hyperbole that Blair is a traitor to the Labour Movement. The sooner he is removed, the better.

PETER NIELSEN,

Worcester.