I was getting increasingly upset by the war in Iraq especially when I watched President George Bush and his colleagues talking about 'successes.'

How could he say accidental deaths of British and American servicemen and women were a cost to be paid? How can he ignore the deaths of hundreds (or is it thousands now?) of Iraqi soldiers and civilians. The majority of the Iraqis were conscripts who had to join the army or were imprisoned or executed by Saddam's evil regime.

The media in the cities being bombed were obviously shocked by the scale and extent of the bombing and none of them was very near to where the bombs were actually dropping.

I have always believed in this country and I don't want to live anywhere else. However, I cannot support this country being at war in Iraq. I think we have been tricked into supporting war before.

In the 1980s when Margaret Thatcher ordered a war against Argentina over the Falkland Islands, the information given to the British public was heavily censored -- the details only became known afterwards. At the time, a diplomatic solution could have been achieved which would have prevented a military conflict. But Maggie didn't want a peaceful solution, she wanted to see Britain at war. I believe the same is true today in Iraq, but it is not our leader who was desperate to fight, it was George Bush.

It is Bush's war and it should not have been our troops dying because he wanted to sort out a supply of oil for the USA.

Bush committed thousands of extra troops to the war and I think they should have been replacing British troops wherever they were fighting in Iraq. This is not because I don't think our troops can do the job or because I do not support them, I simply did not think they should die because of the whim of a US president.

The most patriotic thing to say for the good of Britain and all our troops is, bring home the troops.

COUN DAVE HARLING, (Labour, Corporation Park Ward, Blackburn with Darwen Council), Selbourne Street, Blackburn.