Voices on Iraq part one

'If I go back, I can't return. It's a one-way ticket'



Iraqis who left their homeland and settled in the west describe how the attack on Iraq and the fall of Saddam Hussein has coloured views of their homeland. US journalist Salah Awad believes that the war was 'worth it', but condemns the US for its 'chaotic' administration of postwar Iraq, while Nadia Mahmoud, chairwoman of the Middle East Centre for Women's Studies, calls for an end to occupation.
Yasser Alaskary, Iraqi Prospect Organisation
Hamid Ali Alkifaey, UK-based journalist
Amani, Iraqi Community Association volunteer
Salah Awad, US-based journalist
Sayeh Ghanbari, aeronautical engineer born in Iran
Jabbar Hasan, director of the Iraqi Community Association
Nuri Jacob, former Iraqi civil servant
Nadia Mahmoud, Middle East Centre for Women's Studies


The US's patience with the security council is much diminished'



Academics, writers and a former weapons inspector offer their views on how the shattered country should be put back together. Robert Springborg says that the key is 'administration, administration, administration' while Tim Trevan says nothing the UN weapons inspectors could have done would have made 'a slightest bit of difference' to the eventual outcome - war.
Sandra Mackey, Middle East writer
Roger Matthews, lecturer in the archaeology of western Asia
Robert Springborg, director of the London Middle East Institute
Tim Trevan, former weapons inspector


'We are willing to stand side by side with our Arab brothers'



Anti-war campaigners, charity workers, Gulf war veterans and a human shield are angry about the war and its impact on the Iraqi people. Human shield Ken Nichols O'Keefe maintains that thousands of shields could have prevented the attack altogether, while Ray Bristow, a veteran of the first Gulf war, describes his horror at seeing scenes he witnessed in 1991 being repeated on television in 2003.
Ray Bristow, Gulf war veteran
Andrew Burgin, volunteer at Stop the War coalition
George Galloway, anti-war campaigner and MP for Glasgow Kelvin
Geoff Hann, managing director of Hinterland Travel
Ken Nichols O'Keefe, Universal Kinship Society
Emma Sangster, volunteer, Voices in the Wilderness
Iain Wilson, LSE student


Iraq memorials


Untold stories of those who died during the war on Iraq
With the help of our readers, we are creating an online memorial for some of the thousands who died in the Iraq war. Find out how to send us your tributes for publication and read the life stories already featured on the site.