London, Jan 15, IRNA ,Britain's umbrella peace campaign network are calling on the worldwide anti-war movement to do all it can to help stop a repeat of the Vietnam experience in Iraq following US President George W Bush's latest decision to send more troops.

"In 1968, America had clearly lost in Vietnam but it was six more bloody years, in which two million people were killed, before the US military was driven out," the Stop the War Coalition (STWC) said in its latest newsletter.

The STWC warned that time is short to prevent Bush turning Iraq into another Vietnam by dispatching 21,000 more troops, but said that the opposition was huge with 70 per cent of Americans and nearly three-quarters of Iraqis against the "new strategy".

"There is nothing 'new' about Bush's latest plans for Iraq. The same strategy has been used repeatedly, twice before in Baghdad, in Falluja, in Ramadi, in Tal Afar and many other places. The intention and the result have always been the same," it said.

"Devastating military force aimed at pacifying a town or city doesn't achieve its aim but turns much of the target into rubble, slaughters countless civilians, drives thousands from their homes and destroys the local infrastructure," the newsletter said.

But this time, the STWC warned that "the consequences have the potential to be more horrific than anything we have seen before in Iraq."
"For these reasons, this is a pivotal moment for the anti-war movement, particularly in Britain and the US, home to the two war criminals who instigated the Iraq catastrophe. The stakes are very high," it said.

The peace campaign network said that it was organizing protests to influence how British MPs vote in parliament next week on an Iraq motion, which it said must reflect the views of the overwhelming majority of British public and end the war by bringing troops home.

The American anti-war movement has also called for a march on Washington on January 27 to pressure members of the US Congress to stop Bush's latest strategy.