What Possibility a Mid Winter Celebration?

Written By: - Date published: 2:21 pm, May 15th, 2016 - 8 comments
Categories: Abuse of power, defence, International, iraq, Politics, uk politics, war - Tags: , , , ,

As reported by the Sunday Herald.

Alex Salmond wants Tony Blair to face international criminal proceedings over Britain’s involvement in the Iraq War – if the Chilcot inquiry finds the former British Prime Minister made a secret commitment to US president George Bush to support the invasion.

The former Scottish First Minister and current SNP foreign affairs spokesman in Westminster has revealed he intends to reassemble a cross-party parliamentary group that launched a campaign to have Blair impeached ten years ago, in order to make plans for action prior to the publication of Sir John Chilcot’s 2.6 million-word Iraq war inquiry report in July.

Bringing the cross party parliamentary group together again comes ten years after both the SNP and Plaid Cymru tabled a motion calling for an immediate investigation of the war. The motion was defeated by a majority 25.

Salmond believes that any prosecution of Blair should be carried out by the International Criminal Court – the tribunal that has jurisdiction to prosecute individuals for international crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and ‘crimes of aggression’.

Salmond quoted in the Sunday Herald…

“My own view is that if Chilcot finds (…) that Blair pre-committed to war in the Crawford Ranch in 2002, (then) everything that happened after that was a fabrication in order to provide a justification for a decision that had already been made.
“So that’s dodgy dossiers, slanted intelligence and a whole panoply of deception that was designed in order to justify that original pre-commitment, which was unknown, in my view, to certainly most members of the cabinet – perhaps all members of the cabinet outwith the very narrow charmed circle around Blair.
“If the Chilcott report finds that causal link, then that would in my view provide the body of evidence. And therefore it would be up to a group of citizens to take this evidence to the office of the prosecutor of the ICC and ask him or her to investigate…

Now sure, the upcoming Chilcot findings and alleged recent reports about an impending nationwide shortage of whitewash may well be utterly unconnected. And Tony Blair may indeed be a fine and upstanding expression of humanity.

But winter’s here and I’d dearly like something to celebrate at some point during the dark months.

8 comments on “What Possibility a Mid Winter Celebration? ”

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  1. adam 1
    15 May 2016 at 3:31 pm

    Wouldn’t that just be the death nail on third way politics.

    I wonder if those here who supported the bow down to neo-liberalism in the labour movement, will finally repent – when their Prime Git is proven to be a war criminal?

  2. Richardrawshark 2
    15 May 2016 at 5:12 pm

    Sadam, invaded Saudi , got kicked out by Bushes dad, well done, then Sadam keeps his job and nothing happens what about all the innocent people the Iraqi’s killed invading, what about wrecking the oil fields to the state we had to get Red out there to blast and cap them off.

    Can’t say it’s stabalised the area much, but it was one of two options. ignore or sort it out properly hindsight is always 20/20 who new ISL would grow from the ashes.

    Mums English, she says they hate Blair over there and a lot of the public want him to go to the Hague for war crimes. I find public pressure seems to rule in Britain.

    • Bill 2.1
      15 May 2016 at 6:55 pm

      Saddam Hussein was put into power by the US and they supported him over many years. He was their counterweight to Iran (whatever the fuck that actually means in the minds of US foreign policy wonks) . Iran escaped US influence after the Ayatollah Khomeini ascended to power in ’79 and replaced the US imposed and backed despot known benignly enough as the Shah of Iran.

      I don’t even want to start on the machinations and involvement of the US in the Iran- Iraq war that lasted through most of the 1980s.

      There was no invasion of anywhere by Iraq immediately prior to the 2003 invasion. All that preceded the invasion was a series of sanctions following the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait – those sanctions had led to the death of some 500 000 children by 2003.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0WDCYcUJ4o

      There was absolutely no justification for invading in 2003 and the complete breakdown and resulting chaos within Iraq was predicted by many, many people.

      As for eventual emergence of the daesh – are you saying the US and others had learned nothing from Afghanistan? Actually, if preventing terrorism is their goal or one of their goals, and taking into account Syria and Libya…then yup, I guess they’re simply incapable of learning.

  3. ianmac 3
    15 May 2016 at 5:39 pm

    The difficulty is that whoever is in power wouldbe very reluctant to prosecute the Leaders no matter which side. To do so means admitting that Leaders can be wrong and that the current Leader can then be seen as vulnerable. A bit like “the big banks are too big to fail.”
    An interview years ago when Blair was in NZ in 2006, between Blair and John Campbell , was remarkable. Blair settled down for a friendly chat but the look on his face when John asked him about his culpability for the Iraqi disaster, was a delight. Blair of course denied responsibility and like Key, diverted the interview by picking out the “good” stuff like ridding of Sadam.
    No footage available???: http://www.ngataonga.org.nz/collections/catalogue/catalogue-item?record_id=122162

  4. left for dead 4
    15 May 2016 at 6:14 pm

    Ha… But if it happens, I’ll be around with a wee dram Bill. 😉

  5. Paul 5
    15 May 2016 at 8:36 pm

    The Killings of Tony Blair

    http://www.theblairdoc.com/

  6. esoteric pineapples 6
    17 May 2016 at 8:38 am

    Since the International Criminal Court tries leaders who commit “crimes against humanity” I think it is entirely appropriate for it to judge world leaders who are doing nothing about climate change. I’d like to see John Key go to trial for this at some stage.