Yes: Jabbar Hasan, Director of the Iraqi Association, a charity for Iraqi refugees in Britain

Millions were suffering under Saddam Hussein.

I was born in Baghdad and me, my family and friends saw first hand the countless crimes he committed against his people.

He drove people out of Iraq and got rid of the middle-class professionals running the country. They were persecuted and had no alternative but to flee.

That is why today we have more than 20,000 working for the NHS, many of them doctors.

I escaped Baghdad and came to Britain in 1976. I thought things might calm down and I would be able to go back. But I was wrong.

Saddam began targeting doctors, journalists, scholars and artists because they were influential.

There were many who couldn't get away. They ended up in prison and some were killed.

My younger brother Ali was taken away by Saddam's men in 1982. He was just 23. All these years later we have still not been able to find his grave.

Our worst fear is he was one of millions buried in Saddam's mass graves.

Unfortunately, I have nobody to go back to in Iraq. Under his regime I lost everyone I was close to.

It was right for the troops to go in because Saddam was also a major threat to the region. He was financing groups causing instability, and that had to be stopped. Blair and Bush vowed to remove Saddam and replace him with a new system that offered democracy and human rights.

Paradise was promised and we supported that. Human rights are a freedom Iraqis were entitled to but not enjoyed for decades.

Since 2003, we have seen a huge change in the country. Iraq is no longer ruled by a dictator. There is now a president, parliament and judicial system.

Unfortunately, some things have gone wrong - and some things still need to be fixed. There is corruption, internal wrangling and violence. But at least we have freedom of expression.

There are now hundreds of newspapers and magazines available on the streets of Baghdad and other cities. This is something that has not existed for 50 years.

Before the war there were restrictions on communications. Now Iraqis can enjoy satellite television and can surf the internet. There are web cafes everywhere now. There is a much better quality of life.

There is real hope for the first time. I would like to live there in the future, in fact. I am even thinking of retiring there with my family. Most of my life I have spent in Britain, but to be able to return home would be incredible.

The future of the country is in the hands of the Iraqi people now. But even with troops leaving, international support will still be needed if Iraq is to continue its progress.

No: Rose Gentle Anti-war campaigner whose soldier son Gordon, 19, was killed in Iraq in 2004

The war in Iraq was sold to the world on false pretences.

There were no weapons of mass destruction. Iraq was no threat to us whatsoever. So why invade? What gives us the right to go and take over another country? We are all aware Saddam Hussein was a bad person. So we were supposed to be improving the lives of the Iraqis. But life in Iraq hasn't got any better. It's got worse.

Nothing has been achieved there which is very disappointing.


As well as 179 British servicemen - including my son Gordon.

When we were told about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction, I worried about Gordon going over there. But there was not a lot that I could do about it.

He had just 24 weeks' training and that was it - he was off. I was very nervous. But at the time we were told it was essential he went because we could be hit by these weapons at any point.

I thought that if he was going to defend us from such an attack, it was fair enough.

But then we learned the truth.

And that's when I started asking myself: "Just why is he there?"

I only got two phone calls from Gordon in Iraq: one to say he'd arrived, the other to say that he was busy dodging bullets. Then I learned he'd been killed. Now the troops have been in Iraq for seven years - and that's exactly seven years too long.

I still think the only reason we went to Iraq was because of Tony Blair's friendship with George Bush.

Whenever America shouts, we seem to jump.

Since my son was killed, I've met Iraqis who also lost family members in the war. They all want answers too.

But they don't blame our troops - they blame Tony Blair.

I went to see a wee Iraqi girl in a hospital in Manchester. She had a lot of burns across her legs and arms and she had lost her mum and dad and her siblings.

I bought her some Christmas presents because all she had left in the world was a box of her mum's jewellery. I wanted to bring her home, to be honest.

Every time I think about her now, I ask myself: "Was it worth it?" I'm still angry because the more I hear about the lies that led us to Iraq, the more I ask myself: "What did my son really die for?" So I feel the people who took us into the war in Iraq should face the inside of a court.

Gordon was a happy-go-lucky young man. Now I see his friends around - some of them have been helping me put decking in my garden - and they are getting married and having kids.

And I think to myself: "If it wasn't for the worthless war in Iraq, would my son be starting a family now?"