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It is over. None of the justifications for war have been found true. We have
to deal with the people who ordered the war.
Even if Bush, Blair, Howard, and the heads of Spain, Italy and a few other
countries did make an honest mistake they are still guilty of murder. Every
man, woman and child whether civilian or military who died as a result of
choosing an aggressive war was murdered. They committed crimes against peace
for which the penalty is death by hanging.
Not only the titular leaders are liable but all the civilians who promoted,
aided, permitted, authorized or carried out this war. In the US this
includes the Vice President, most of the senior cabinet members and all of
those who were directly involved in promoting this war. It may include the
members of Congress who authorized this war by voting for it and it
certainly includes all who advocated this war regardless of their vote.
Iraq did not attack any of the countries which attacked it so the aggressors
were clearly at fault. Similarly the Iraqi military was doing no less than
their patriotic duty defending their country from invasion. They were
murdered by the invading foreigners.
Then we add to those murders all of the Iraqi civilians who died as a
consequence of the war. They were casualties of a criminal war of conquest
and were thus murdered by the aggressors.
Finally we add to the list of the murdered all the troops of the aggressor
armies who died in this criminal war. They were equally victims of their
criminal political rulers.
There are conservatively 70,000 murders for which Bush, Blair, Howard and
the others must stand trial. At their trials they can explore the defense of
an honest mistake before the court and see if it is successful. They can
also introduce into evidence the nuclear weapons and thousands of tons of
chemical and biological weapons possessed by Iraq should they be found.
If an honest mistake is to be the defense then they must produce evidence a
knowledgeable person in their positions would have come to the same
conclusion. This will be difficult as their claims were clearly foolish to
those knowledgeable in the claims such as the unmanned anthrax drone with
the 9000 mile range to reach the US from Iraq.
They will further have to demonstrate due diligence in establishing the
accuracy of the information they gave as their reasons. They will be
required to demonstrate they took the reasonable steps to verify the
information to a degree commensurate with the consequences of waging war.
They will not be permitted to use "good enough for government work" as
though it were not serious as an excuse.
Should they be able to convince the court that the character of Saddam
Hussein was sufficient cause they will have to establish his offenses. As
Hussein's trial is at least two years in the future (there was a report he
has an advanced cancer) they will not be able to point to his conviction on
charges to support that defense. It is unlikely the court could be convinced
to permit this defense.
Even if it were permitted, it would have to be established the loss of life
was greater under Hussein than as a result of the war. It was not. Even the
nebulous area of "freedom" would have to be shown greater even though
marriage is now back in the hands of the religious and Islamic law will soon
become the law of the land. The Kurds have already complained they had
greater freedom under Hussein.
Even if they should escape on a technicality their governments bear full
civil liability to compensate all of those who died unjustly from all
countries and most of all Iraqis. Their country did nothing to provoke the
attack and conquest and therefore are owed indemnification for losses.
Indemnification is a custom in war going back centuries. If we are to live
by laws justice goes to the loser as well as the victor.
The soldiers of the aggressors all agreed only to the defense of their
respective countries. They did not agree nor did their countries ask them to
agree to an arbitrary conquest of other countries. In fact such an activity
was specifically prohibited to them. None but a few senior officers (who
must also stand trial) would know for sure this war was criminal. So they
also have civil claims against their governments, the amount to be decided
by the courts.
International law which the US and Britain helped create requires the trial
of the aggressor in an unprovoked war of conquest. This has been black
letter law since Nuremberg. And as at Nuremberg the penalty is death by
hanging.
The above would be the case in a country where the rule of law applies. The
countries involved in the conquest have laws which only apply to those
without political office. While the above is all correct it will never
happen. The governments of these countries are above the law, not only
international law but the laws of their own countries.
It is proper to consider war as murder as it is a crime against peace from
which flows all other crimes of war. It does not matter if the consequences
were intended as long as a reasonable person would expect it in the course
of a war. It is known civilians die during a war whether or not intended. As
a minimum their deaths are the result of a depraved indifference to human
life.
We will never see Bush or Blair or the others actually brought to justice
and hanged as they so richly deserve. And because of this they will not be
the last to commit these crimes. There will be more such crimes in the
future simply because there is precedent in their escaping criminal
prosecution for their actions.
The failure to prosecute them for their crimes turns back the clock before
WWII. Worse it turns back the clock to the days of kings when the people
were sent off to war at whim in wars to enrich the kings. The people are no
longer citizens but puppets of aggrandizement of the political
establishment.
Ben Franklin now has an answer. We can't keep it.
We tolerated corruption, inside deals, legislation that benefited only
insiders, the power of government to mold behavior and more. We not only
tolerated it but we welcomed it. It was only money or an annoyance or what
we came to cynically say was just politics. But it was all in the family,
all within the country and we would have a chance to get even next election.
It was not lives.
Now it has taken the final step. It is lives. It is not even lives for
United Fruit in the good old days. We had no interests of any kind in Iraq
to protect, not even those of rich businesses. This was the old style war. A
war for future economic gain and to cut others out of that gain. The lives
of Americans were worth no more than the lives of Iraqis when it came to
this gain.
This is not Heil Hitler. This is bended knee to his majesty.
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