As part of the international day of World Against War demonstrations, Aberystwyth Peace and Justice Network invited Wales to continue to protest. Five years on, the occupation of Iraq remains an unmitigated catastrophe.
In Aberystwyth, Cor Gobaith sang stirringly and a number of AP&JN supporters engaged with the public. Plaid Cymru president Dafydd Iwan sent a strong message of party support for the campaigns: Troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, Don't attack Iran, End the siege of Gaza. Liberal-Democrat MP for Ceredigion Mark Williams also offered his support to the Aberystwyth demonstration.
The World Against War website listed Aberystwyth as one of 58 place participating. The day after the demonstration, Dispatches on Channel 4 investigated the refugee crisis. “In the past five years more than four million Iraqis - 20 per cent of the entire population - have been driven from their homes as a result of the war and sectarian bloodshed. Two million have become exiles, living desperate lives across the border in Syria and Jordan.”
In Amman, Dispatches recorded the heart-rending plight of Iraqi children terribly burned, maimed and mutilated, “collateral damage” of the carnage the USA and Britain's illegal war has unleashed.