DON’T READ THIS !
THIS GUARDIAN ARTICLE COMES FROM 2003 !!
THIS ARTICLE COMES FROM THE UK !!
War critics astonished as US hawk admits invasion was illegal
Oliver Burkeman and Julian Borger in Washington
Thursday November 20, 2003
The Guardian
International lawyers and anti-war campaigners reacted with astonishment yesterday after the influential Pentagon hawk Richard Perle conceded that the invasion of Iraq had been illegal.
In a startling break with the official White House and Downing Street lines, Mr Perle told an audience in London: “I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing.”
“President George Bush has consistently argued that the war was legal either because of existing UN security council resolutions on Iraq – also the British government’s publicly stated view – or as an act of self-defence permitted by international law.
“But Mr Perle, a key member of the defence policy board, which advises the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said that “international law … would have required us to leave Saddam Hussein alone”, and this would have been morally unacceptable.
French intransigence, he added, meant there had been “no practical mechanism consistent with the rules of the UN for dealing with Saddam Hussein”.
War critics astonished as US hawk admits invasion was illegal
Now forgive me all to heck if this has been diaried before… like say over the last two years.
And forgive me if I refer again to Kofi Annan who said straight out in September of 2004, “The war in Iraq is illegal.”
And forgive me if I repeat what we have known since 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005, that war in Iraq is illegal.
But the clear fact of the case is that war in Iraq is now and was always illegal.
* That means the case against George Bush, and pushing for a Resolution of Inquiry has merit.
* That means that the cases of the conscientious objectors have merit.
* That means that the legislation being discussed now for a pull out from Iraq in 2006 do not have merit, as they are proposing that we extend an illegal war for another year.
There are now more than 1,700 Americans dead, maybe as many as 100,000 Iraqis dead. And the reason this has happened is that no one read this article in 2003.
* No one listened to Clarke and O’Neill.
* No one listened to Wilmshurst.* No one read, no one listened, no one understood.
* No one reported in the US that Perle said war with Iraq was/is illegal.
* No one paid attention to Seymour Hersh in 2002: THE DEBATE WITHIN “The objective is clear–topple Saddam. But how?”
If the war in Iraq is illegal then the US has involved the UK, Australia and all the other coutries with troops in Iraq in War Crimes.
We must bring an end to this illegal war in Iraq. NOW.
Apian
June 24, 2005
17:54 GMT
SEE MORE AT:
MEDIA TRACKING — Need Boo Trib Help — MEDIA TRACKING TO BRING AN END TO WAR IN IRAQ
