The world establishment has been conspiring for well over a year now to convince us that an unprovoked invasion of Iraq was justified, urgently required and somehow linked to the War on Terror.

Over the past year, armed Iraqi opposition to the occupation has been increasing steadily with the US constantly changing its definition of those who rise up against it as terrorists and extremists.

But they are simply Iraqi people attempting to expel the foreign invaders who would exploit them and their natural resources under the pretence that they rid the country of an evil dictator - the very dictator they supported and armed for years.

The Iraqi people are seeing through this and the sham of the US-run governing council and reacting accordingly.

So now the twisted logic of this insane venture has reached its insane and horrific conclusion. The US forces, surprised by the mass uprising and now bogged down, are slaughtering hundreds of innocent civilians under the obscene pretence that they are protecting those same civilians from Iraqi extremists.

They are employing tactics tried and tested by the Israeli army over many years. These tactics are driven by the knowledge that the American public will happily accept any number of Iraqi casualties as long as US casualties are kept low.

How can indiscriminate bombing of civilians and destruction of cities do anything but intensify the violence? How can killing 40 worshippers at prayer in a mosque help the situation?

Preoccupied with retaining power, our leaders seem to be sleep-walking towards further disaster while trying to convince us that the chaos they have created is entirely logical and somehow morally justified.

This cycle of violence will intensify until our leaders are removed from power and brought to account for their actions.

-Glenn Williams, Brighton