Gordon Brown told George Bush this week that Britain has a "shared destiny" with the United States" founded on "shared values". Even as Brown spoke, the consequences of those "shared values" in Iraq were spelt out in horrific detail by a report from Oxfam and over 100 other NGOs.

· 43% of Iraqis are in absolute poverty;

· 28% of Iraqi children are malnourished;

· 32% of internally displaced persons who need food rations can't get them;

· 70% of Iraqis don't have adequate water supplies;

· 80% don't have effective sanitation;

· 4 million Iraqis are in dire need of humanitarian assistance

· 11% of newborn babies are underweight.

Rising To The Humanitarian Challenge In Iraq

· Unemployment in Iraq is running at over 50 per cent.

· Up to one million Iraqis have been killed over the past four years as a result the illegal US-UK invasion.

· Four million Iraqis - one seventh of the population - have been displaced from their homes, with two million fleeing the country. This is, as journalist Patrick Cockburn writes, "The greatest mass exodus of people ever in the Middle East & dwarfs anything seen in Europe since the Second World War."

Four Million Iraqis On The Run

Any hopes that Gordon Brown would distance himself from Tony Blair's abject subservience to US foreign policy objectives were dashed when Brown confirmed that there was "no plan to withdraw British troops before the Iraqi army is deemed capable of maintaining security", which is doublespeak for "no plans until George Bush says it's ok". Brown displayed his continuity with Blair's war policies despite the government's first official acknowledgement, in a report published recently by the Ministry of Defence, that there is little or no public support for the war in Iraq.

The people of Iraq want the foreign occupiers out of their country immediately, so they can be free to decide how they want to be governed & to control their own resources, not least the second largest reserves of oil in the world.

The views of the Iraq majority were expressed this week by the captain of the Iraqi football team, following its victory in the Asian Cup, "I want America to go out. Today, tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow, but out. I wish the American people didn't invade Iraq & hopefully it will be over soon."