The IAWM statement condemned the airstrikes by the US, noting that such actions have proved in the past to exacerbate tensions and violence and have never been carried out for the reasons noted. Inevitably more civilians will get killed and we cannot support US intervention in a region in which the US is already responsible for so much killing, maiming, dislodging of hundreds of thousands of civilians and for stoking sectarian tensions.

'ethnic cleansing'
The IAWM statement also condemned the actions and threats of the Islamic State forces against minority religious groups, which amount to ethnic cleansing, and called for the humanitarian efforts to be stepped up, but noted that these should be under the aegis of the UN and NGOs and not the US and British military which have caused so much humanitarian catastrophe in the region.

The IAWM statement went on to note that the growth of the Islamic State forces is a direct legacy of the so-called 'war on terror', of the sanctions and bombing of Iraq, of an occupation which deliberately fostered sectarian divisions and of a series of policies which have resulted in the backing of right wing fundamentalist groups to fight anyone perceived as the enemy of the US and its allies, such as happened over the last few years in Syria but that began in the 1980s in Afghanistan when the US funded the predecessors of the Taliban and al Qaeda to help defeat its main enemy at the time, the USSR.

The IAWM statement noted deep concern for the stranded refugees fleeing from the Islamic State forces but stressed that it is completely erroneous to believe that this crisis can be solved by US military airstrikes. The US and other western powers have continually backed groups that support its supposed interests in strengthening the occupations against the resistance movements that sprang up. Iraq's central state was destroyed and replaced by a puppet US colonial administration that created death squads and militias.

The statement also noted that the US support for Prime Minister Maliki's corrupt government in Iraq and for such groups in Syria has led to this serious escalation of sectarian tension and rivalry within Iraq and the wider region. As US officials have admitted, there is no US military solution in Iraq. Therefore the US should get out and leave Iraqis and their neighbours to try to resolve the mess it created.

 Jim Roche, IAWM PRO said:  "The response by the US to the Iraq crisis, while displaying the futility of its foreign policy, is also grossly hypocritical in that there is no similar so-called 'humanitarian' response for the people of Gaza where almost 2000, mainly civilians, have been killed by US ally Israel within the last month, and a quarter of the population has been displaced. Where are the humanitarian airlifts for the injured, terrified and starving people of Gaza? Where are the air strikes against an invading army that has killed so many women and children?"