We can never forget human cost of war

IT is incredible to think that it was 27 years ago that the great Tony Benn delivered his now-famous speech in the House of Commons, urging members of Parliament not to vote to join unilateral action on Iraq.

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He urged fellow MPs not to vote to join the United States in invading Iraq, under the guise that then leader Saddam Hussein had 'weapons of mass destruction' capable of hitting western targets.

Having witnessed the horror of the Blitz in London in 1940, when he was a child, Benn said that war was 'terrifying,' but continued: "Aren't Arabs terrified? Aren't Iraqis terrified? Don't Arab and Iraqi women weep when their children die? Doesn't bombing strengthen their determination?"

He went on: "What fools we are to live in a generation for which war is a computer game for our children and just an interesting little Channel 4 news item."

His words, which were being widely shared across social media this week, have become as relevant today as they were in 1998, after the US unilaterally - and without the backing of their own Congress - took military action to bomb nuclear facilities in Iran.