Wednesday, June 08, 2005

Who will bring these people to task?

This you have to see.
While Tony is galavanting around telling everyone how he's going to save Africa from debt and despotism, it's worth drawing your attention back to events in Iraq. In July 2002 -- before they had anything resembling a resolution to go to war -- the U.S. and U.K. doubled the bombing raids on Iraq trying to provoke Saddam Hussein into giving them an excuse for war. Isn't this a war crime? Isn't it a disgrace that people who were starving were killed by our leaders, with our taxes, that our compatriots perpertrated this?
The Times reports that during 2000, RAF aircraft patrolling the southern no-fly zone over Iraq dropped 20.5 tons of bombs from a total of 155 tons dropped by the coalition, a mere 13%. During 2001 that figure rose slightly to 25 tons out of 107, or 23%. However, between May 2002 and the second week in November, when the UN Security Council passed resolution 1441, which Goldsmith said made the war legal, British aircraft dropped 46 tons of bombs a month out of a total of 126.1 tons, or 36%. By October, with the UN vote still two weeks away, RAF aircraft were dropping 64% of bombs falling on the southern no-fly zone. It was not until November 8 that the UN security council passed resolution 1441, which threatened Iraq with "serious consequences" for failing to co-operate with the weapons inspectors.
The briefing paper from a meeting in July 2002 reveals not only that the bombing would be intensified, but that Tony Blair acceded to George W. Bush's efforts to bring about regime change in April 2002, even though this explicitly contravenes United Nations treaties. You can read the briefing paper for yourself here.
Who will now bring these people to task?

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