So, the Chilcot report is out and it’s not pretty.
Jeremy Corbyn has apologised on behalf of the Labour party for its role in the 2003 Iraq war, and warned that the people who took the decisions “laid bare in the Chilcot report” must now face up to the consequences.
…
The Labour leader’s apology went further than he had earlier in parliament, when he responded to the Chilcot report after David Cameron. At that point, Corbyn called the war an “act of military aggression”, arguing that it was thought of as illegal “by the overwhelming weight of international legal opinion”. (emphasis added)
I very much hope this next man, who has far less worth than the toilet paper I clean myself with, is not a Labour candidate in the next election.
As Corbyn issued his excoriating statement to the House of Commons, he was heckled by his own backbencher Ian Austin, who shouted: “Sit down and shut up, you’re a disgrace.”
When you’re screaming at someone for apologizing for a war crime that is identical to that which many Nazi leaders were hung for, you’re officially a waste of human skin.
Corbyn hasn’t actually called for “war crimes trial for Blair,” but he’s made the case. The European Criminal Court, being also basically worthless, had already said that they would not try Tony Blair, but might charge ordinary soldiers.
I have never had any respect for the ECC, whose mandate appears to involve prosecuting the politically powerless, especially Africans, and avoiding anyone with any influence. Justice as unevenly applied as the ECC applies it is not a step in the right direction, it is actually injustice. Saying that they would not charge Blair even before the Chilcot report was out simply confirmed the primacy of political over legal considerations for them.
Yet again, Corbyn has proved he is one of very few honorable people in a den of scum. May he become Prime Minister and, once Prime Minister, may he ensure Tony Blair and those who aided and abetted him in selling the Iraq war with lies, have the fair trial they so richly deserve.
Oh, and as usual, doing so is not just the right thing to do ethically, it would be the right thing to do politically, keeping Corbyn’s primary enemies completely occupied. Because, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, the people who fear actual left-wingers or people of principle the most aren’t Tories, they are Blairites.
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realitychecker
Well, Ian, considering the travesty of justice re Hillary yesterday, maybe we should stop complaining and just resign ourselves to being nothing more than livestock in the eyes of all world “leaders.” If you think regular folks should get the same “Rule of law” as the “important people,” then you clearly have a weak grasp on reality./s
DMC
You’d think Chealsea Manning should be free and Petreaus should be in jail for 35 years! And what kind of topsy-turvey world would that be?
Stirling Newberry
Oh my! George W. was a Bush! How could we know?
Charlie Dozen
You mean the International Criminal Court (ICC).
ICC has no jurisdiction when it comes to the crime of aggression, so in this case it was a legal consideration.
The responsibility to prosecute and try Blair lies first and foremost with the UK and its judicial system; ICC, which has no mandate to do anything when it comes to the crime of aggression, shouldn’t be used as a scapegoat.
Ian Welsh
That it is outside their remit, yet war crimes by individual soldiers are not is a political decision.
I prefer calling it the European Court to the International one. It better reflects the court’s…proclivities.
Charlie Dozen
“That it is outside their remit, yet war crimes by individual soldiers are not is a political decision.”
Yes, but not one made by the ICC.
Todd Hitler
The International Criminal Court, or ICC, not the non-existent European Criminal Court.
Source: everything you linked to
Todd Hitler
Honestly, try to show a little bit of basic research and seriousness if you’re going to use such a pompous voice. I regularly feel embarrassed while reading you.
bajathomas
Todd, you are obviously an a….e.
By the way, which idiot feels “regularly embarrassed”
reading a website but keeps on reading…
angry that you were not paid well last month?
Maybe you didn’t post enough garbage ?!!!
Tom W Harris
Hey Toddy baby,
The only thing Ian might feel embarrassed about is that you read his site.
Jill
The intelligence was fixed in order to go to war. Not Bush, not Blair could make a “case” for war without first having fabricated evidence. That fabrication has been documented. Why isn’t this a war crime and who should be ashamed to say so?
100,000 plus dead, thousands more wounded.
Stirling Newberry
It is very clear what happened … everyone knew the case was, at best, weak, but if everybody lied they would have a chance to restrain the US … if it was anyone other than Bush. and what is dismal: we did not elect him, but we did re-elect him, sort of. This is what happens when democracies do not stand up for democracy.
Ivory Bill Woodpecker
I found a girlfriend for Todd.
S Brennan
Let’s not forget the role of the corporate media in knowingly prosecuting “wars of aggression”…as much as any pol, they deserve the gallows for their heinous crimes against humanity.
Indra-Varuna
It’s quite funny that both the Center-Left and Center-Right are dominated by Zionists interests but the average person has no clue about this and the mass media isn’t allowed to talk about.
Ivory Bill Woodpecker
Uh-oh, Todd will have to fight Hindu Idol Boy for Mirror Universe Osaka and her clone army.
IIRC, the procedure is lirpa first, then ahn-woon, if both survive the lirpa phase.
Kalifee!
Ken Hoop
Nothing contrarian about Indra-Varuna’s comment.
Evidently much was made of Bliar not having lied if he really believed whatever he claimed to believe.
The minimalist lies, as with Bush, come in having cherrypicked intelligence, suppressing that part which you “didn’t believe”…but then presenting the “believeable” intelligence to your respective populace’s as the authoritative intelligence and as luck would have it the only intelligence worth mentioning to that populace.
That this process is not viewed as lying by the report is itself scandalous.
Jill
The fixing of intelligence went well beyond cherry picking. A scenario was presented by the US and Britain. This scenario was sent to various nations such as Italy and Germany who were told to confirm the story. Although the Germans raised questions about the information they ultimately agreed to “verify” information they knew was a lie.
Then the false information was presented as vetted by multiple nation’s intelligence agencies. This “vetting” was an important talking point in getting UK and US populations on board with the war.
There is no question that Bush and Blair both knew the information was untrue. It was so untrue that the only way they could pass it along was to “vet” it by invoking multiple intelligence agency blessings on the information.
If you truly believe something you don’t need to send it along for a round robin of vetting so that it can look accurate.
Bill Hicks
The ICC is just following the lead of a certain Nobel Peace Prize winning president in refusing to prosecute the major war criminals in his own country. Too bad all the time, money and hot air wasted by the Benghazi committee couldn’t have instead been directed towards an American inquiry in the the Iraq War crime.
realitychecker
BREAKING NEWS!!! Comey will recommend that Killary should immediately be awarded the Medal of Honor. Apparently, she didn’t have a criminal intent to not put her ass on the line in battle and perform heroic acts.
We are so fucked. Rule of law, R.I.P.
And so it goes. Don’t anybody do anything violent, like committing a microaggression.
Note: If this comment doesn’t make any sense to you, just ask yourself why ANYTHING should anymore.
wendy davis
Hilarious, reality checker. Bush gave the same medals to Bremer, Franks, and ay yi yi: George Tenet?
But disregarding the Hitler food fight cuz I have no idea, we’ve been trying to bring some light to the report, plus a bit of heat. Just in case we have:
‘#Chilcot Report by Tweet and Cliffs Notes’, https://cafe-babylon.net/2016/07/06/chilcot-report-by-tweet-and-cliffs-notes/
wendy davis
Sorry if my comment may have been the dreaded Thread Killer, but we’d been trying to keep us as people dug into the report, and so forth.
I’d seen this tweeted by my favorite Commie, but it’s waaaay too long for me to read, especially since: any prosecution is epically unlikely.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289537216_The_World%27s_Court_of_Justice_A_Historiography_of_War_Crimes_Prosecutions
realitychecker
@ wendy davis.
Hi, Wendy, actually I meant the Congressional Medal of Honor, but, it doesn’t matter, what matters is that we are all clearly trapped in bizarro world now and nobody has a solution that isn’t all about denying any personal responsibility for anything, and putting all the blame on someone/everyone else. Can’t anybody analyze multi-party transactions anymore?????? It all makes me sick to my soul, and I imagine you feel the same.
I will read the report you linked and blogged about; I confess I’ve fallen behind on reading your worthy posts of late, just have them saved in my email with the intent to catch up when I can get some breathing room–lately most of my focus has had to go to dying buddies.
Best wishes and hugs to you and yours, as always.
wendy davis
@ realitychecker Oopsie on my mistake, but still, same point, I reckon. Ha! Speaking of not taking any personal (I’ll add ‘collective’) I’ve been working on a Nato Summit Warsaw post. The gist is: all this ‘stuff’ happened in a vacuum’. Well, save for ‘Revanchist Putin’, but ‘we’ll get him, my pretties!’
Yeppers, I can get sincerely vexed, but blogging is a bit of a pressure release, and this wild oasis Mr. wd and I created is such an extraordinary tonic, as are the skies at night (the Milky Way is rising in the east again, Mr. wd says. Mebbe I’ll get out to look at it and Cygnus the Swan tonight.
But what has my knickers in the most serious knot right now is the info on two of my recent posts concerning the galloping partnerships with Bill Gates (Good Guy™) and his transgenic food buddies. Awesome fukkery, and frightening as all giddy-up, cuz there’s no stopping it, as far as I can see.
But ooof; your time is far better spent helping your friends transition to their next journeys. Yanno what John Trudell said just before he died of cancer this year? “My ride showed up.” How can ya not love the hell outta that, eh?
I might have a slightly different take on death, myself, in that some days, I think I’m just about ready for the White Owl.
http://sharingpoetry.tumblr.com/post/20691374876/mary-oliver-white-owl-flies-into-and-out-of-the
Meantime, this:
‘To love. To be loved. To never forget your own insignificance. To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you. To seek joy in the saddest places. To pursue beauty to its lair. To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. To respect strength, never power. Above all, to watch. To try and understand. To never look away. And never, never to forget.’
best to you, as well.
w
~ Arundhati Roy
realitychecker
@ wendydavis
When I go, they can put that Roy wisdom on my tombstone. Thanks for that, dear one.
John Poynton
And what would you have said if Saddam had subsequently re-invaded Kuwait? We know that was his intention as he deliberated retained the deterrent effect of implying he had WMD. These things are just not as easy as some people find in retrospect.