Focus on this David Miliband.....

Like everything else stage managed and choreographed at LP conference, David Miliband, in his first speech as foreign secretary, admitted that the government was "scarred" due to their decision to invade Iraq.

"Whatever the rights and wrongs - and there have been both - we have got to focus on the future. We need to continue to support the development of an effective Iraqi security force. We need to keep our promise to all Iraqis that they will have an economic stake in the future of the country."

What Miliband elects to keep out of his speech is what a devastated state Iraq is in. His speech was full of grand gestures and like any imperialist supporting warmonger, glosses over the very very big wrongs of this conflict by telling us to look to the future. Well, tell that to the Iraqis.

Oxfam published a report in the summer about the humanitarian crisis in Iraq. Four million people are in dire need of assistance. More than two million people are displaced in Iraq and another 2 million displaced in neighbouring countries such as Jordan and Syria.

Some Iraqis are refused asylum in the UK and sent back yet there was media attention given to 91 Iraqi interpreters who worked for the occupiers to be given asylum. Before anyone condemns me I agree these interpreters should be given asylum but there are double standards at play as why not give asylum to other Iraqis?

The infrastructure as well as health and education has been trashed. No reconstruction of water supplies. There are ecological and health implications with the impact of depleted uranium and there has been no practical clear-up of cluster bombs.The occupiers brought about divide and rule as Iraqis have to carry ID cards differentiating between Shia and Sunni muslims. The operation of death squads in Iraq with the likes of John Negroponte in the background (and he has much experience of organising death squads!) and the occupiers stoking sectarian violence.

There has been blackout on media coverage on air strikes in built up areas such as Sadr City in Baghdad (and the terrible war crimes committed in Fallujah). And now we see the purging of natural resources with the West arm twisting the Iraqi government to push through the Hydrocarbon Law and allow production sharing agreements to go through.

We must demand the immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq (unlike the mealy-mouthed demands that came out of the toothless Iraq Commission) and keep their thieving paws off the oil.

That's what Miliband should focus on.............