Claims that the UK has committed war crimes against Iraqi civilians are being examined by the International Criminal Court after complaints by a panel of legal experts.

In a letter seen by The Independent on Sunday, the chief prosecutor of the ICC in The Hague has described the war crimes allegations as “one of the most significant” cases he has seen, and were being given “deserved weight” by his investigators.

Luis Moreno Ocampo, the chief prosecutor, indicated that his office has now begun the formal process of gathering evidence about the claims and is now expected to ask the Government to explain its military strategy in Iraq.
(Source: Independent On Sunday)

I would love to see Butcher Blair in the dock, looking dishevelled and confused as he’s properly charged with the slaughter of tens of thousands of Iraqis.

Sadly, I don’t think it will happen. Not because we haven’t committed those war crimes (did all those Iraqis just evaporate?) but because it’s the winners who write history, including who’s tried for war crimes. And since the UK government is in league with the US government, the dominant military power on Earth, I can’t see either party letting itself be inconvenienced by international law

Basically, it’s the old joke:

Where does an eight-hundred-pound gorilla sit?
Anywhere he wants to.

Senior army commanders have expressed fears that the increasingly vocal anti-Iraq war movement is discouraging thousands of young men from considering a career in the armed forces.

They blame high-profile campaigns against the war, often led by bereaved parents and supported by celebrities and political figures, for worsening recruitment problems, particularly into the infantry.

According to military sources the high media visibility of bereaved parents, such as Rose Gentle, whose 19-year-old son was killed, and the unpopularity of the war have made recruitment and retention a problem, exacerbating an already acute recruitment crisis in areas such as Scotland. The problem is now also spreading to the north of England and Wales, forces officials say.
(Source: The Guardian)

So, even if the British mass media won’t televise our marches and Butcher Blair and his New Labour scum ignore our protests, here’s one group of people acknowledging how effective us loony-lefty peaceniks are.

If anything I’ve taken part in over the past couple of years has put even one person off joining the army, I’d be happy. Apparently, the anti-war movement has had a much larger affect, both here and in the US. Kids are having second thoughts before signing-up to be cannon fodder in their governments’ military adventures. It’s even affected the TA:

According to army sources the problem is also evident in the Territorial Army which has bolstered the regular Army’s ranks in Iraq.

‘People join the Territorials for a hobby,’ said another source. ‘They don’t expect to end up being sent to Iraq for six months, taking casualties and seeing a lot of killing. There is no end in sight to the war in Iraq. That is what is really putting people off.’
(Source: The Guardian)

And what about all the lazy, trendy-lefty wankers out there who just whinge away, never actually doing anything? “I’m against the war as much as anyone but what’s the point of marching and protesting? Won’t change anything, will it? I think I’ll just go to the pub and tell jokes about Bush instead.”

Well, it looks like you were wrong too.

Everything we do makes a difference. Every single person who’s spent their time and money protesting against this evil war has contributed to saving lives, both Iraqi and British.

If you believe you are powerless, then you make yourself powerless.

Two paramedics who attended the scene where weapons expert David Kelly was found dead have expressed surprise at the official inquiry’s conclusion.

The Hutton Inquiry found he died as a result of a slit wrist in July 2003.

But the medics said the small amount of blood they saw around the body was inconsistent with the cut on his wrist being the cause of death.

They spoke to the inquiry and Thames Valley Police, who say the investigation will not be reopened.
(Source: BBC News)

The pathologist questioned in the above article believes the paramedics are mistaken. So, the question is basically how did Dr. Kelly die?

But in a statement from the Kelly Investigation Group, an orthopaedic and trauma surgeon, Bill McQuillan, said: “The blood spurts out with each heartbeat and may reach distances of six feet or more.

“If this was the case with Dr Kelly, his clothes, face and any surrounding structures would show evidence of that with the blood scattered as from a watering can …

“When you put this evidence together with other pieces, including the fact that Dr Kelly’s body appears to have been moved from slumped against a tree to flat on its back – and we know photographs are in existence to prove this – then it illustrates the need for a full inquest where all this can be properly investigated.”
(Source: The Guardian)

We’ll probably never know. It’s an incovenient question and, as such, it’s being ignored after a slapdash whitewashing by Hutton. And anyway, perhaps the question we should be asking is why Kelly died.

I believe that Kelly died as a result of the actions of the British government. He hinted at the turmoil around him when he spoke of “many dark actors playing games.” He didn’t mean the BBC by this, he meant Her Majesty’s Government.

We can only guess at the situation that lead to Kelly’s death. With the police turning a blind eye and the government smugly content with the Hutton cover-up, we may never know anything more concrete than that.

Tony Blair’s autocratic style of government was savaged yesterday by Lord Butler, the former cabinet secretary.

Lord Butler, who led the inquiry into intelligence failures on the Iraq war that largely exonerated the Prime Minister, said the Blair Government was guilty of “too much emphasis on selling” its own policies, “too much central control” and too little cabinet discussion.

He accused the Prime Minister of presiding over “bad government in this country” with too many “bad Bills”, and a “huge amount of regulation”.
(Source: The Independent)

This is, of course, way too little, way too late. Certainly far too late for the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis slaughtered as a result of Blair’s collusion with Bush. Too little in that Butler had a chance to nail the PM in the inquiry he ran but he pressed the ‘whitewash’ button instead. What’s changed between then and now? If he’s condemning Blair now for being autocratic and anti-democratic, was he all sweetness and light when he ignored both his own party and the wishes of millions of British citizens?

I suppose I should be leaping on this morsel gleefully, anything that helps to reveal that we have a monster in No. 10 is a plus, after all.

But everyday, there are more corpses in Iraq, “liberated” by US and UK forces. Britain is now in league with a government whose army shoots wounded, unarmed civilians. A government that kidnaps children and holds them in illegal camps. A government that routinely tortures prisoners of war and sees nothing wrong in that horror. Butcher Blair bulldozed that support of Bush’s regime into place. He manipulated, obfuscated and downright lied in order to better serve Bush’s PNAC agenda.

And the people with power around Blair, the New Labour aristos and supposed checks like Butler closed ranks around him and protected him, just when their moral duty was to expose his evil.