Tuesday, September 04, 2012

The War Criminal begins to grasp his new life

When Desmond Tutu wrote that Tony Blair should be treading the path to The Hague, he de-normalised what Blair has done. Tutu broke the protocol of power – the implicit accord between those who flit from one grand meeting to another – and named his crime. I expect that Blair will never recover from it.
The offence is known by two names in international law: the crime of aggression and a crime against peace. It is defined by the Nuremberg principles as the "planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression". This means a war fought for a purpose other than self-defence: in other words outwith articles 33 and 51 of the UN Charter.
That the invasion of Iraq falls into this category looks indisputable. Blair's cabinet ministers knew it, and told him so. His attorney general warned that there were just three ways in which it could be legally justified: "self-defence, humanitarian intervention, or UN security council authorisation. The first and second could not be the base in this case." Blair tried and failed to obtain the third.

The above is from George Monbiot's "We're one crucial step closer to seeing Tony Blair at The Hague" (Guardian). Tony Blair really thought that after laying low for a few years, he could just come back in and be the elder statesman in England.  Ed Miliband was never known as the smart of the two brothers (I've known David and Ed for many years) and never was that more obvious than this past spring when Ed began working overtime to help Tony come back into the fold.

It was a waste of time and it would have been even if fate hadn't splashed a wave of reality.  The smartest thing Labour can do is reject Tony Blair and move forward.  Tony Blair and the Iraq War will not fade from memory.  This is not just opinion, it's reflected in Labour's own polling.  It takes incredible hubris to ignore the polling and think you can change perception.  Tony is dead weight and if Labour wants a future, they have to reject him, not embrace him.

And they have to reject him because Tony didn't have the sense to walk away.  You really have to wonder about people like Tony Blair.  He's now rich beyond anyone's beliefs and could lay low and spend his blood money.  Instead, he honestly thinks he also deserves to be respected.  Respect will not be forthcoming for Tony Blair.  There is nothing he can do now that will redeam him or salvage his reputation.

His pitiful attempts at charity for good publicity will not alter his image.  Who he is has been engraved in stone.

He can dispute he's a War Criminal all he likes but he is and will remain on the defensive for the rest of his life.  He may never stand before The Hauge but he will always know that is a possibility, he will always fear it.

And that is the hell he has created for himself.

It's not going to make up for all the lives lost because of the illegal war, but it does ensure that he won't have a great deal of rest in the future.

 The Stop The War Coalition in the UK will continue their Tony Blair Watch.  Arrest Blair will continue to offer a bounty to whomever places Blair under citizen's arrest.

tb
People like Blair always think they can salvage their reputations after and later but life has a way of slowly correcting that false impression.


We're back to the regular schedule after the long Labor Day weekend.  Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "The Needed Extension" went up Sunday as did Kat's "Kat's Korner: Susanna Hoffs and Joss Stone, who can figure it out?" and Kat's "Kat's Korner: Animal Collective goes instinctual"  and "Kat's Korner: All Hail The Queen of F**ked Up" went up Monday.  And yesterday, these posts went up:



The Peace and Freedom Party's presidential ticket is Roseanne Barr and Cindy Sheehan.  Vice Presidential candidate Cindy explains why she is running and what needs to change in "What About Obama?" -- excerpt.


 Obama has increased military spending since he became Commander in Chief of US Armed Forces; increased troops to Afghanistan by treble; and he has also increased the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones by over 500 percent over his predecessor. I am sure that if Mitt becomes president, those things will continue, but just like under Bush and every Republican before him since Roe v. Wade, Roe v. Wade won’t be overturned.
Besides Obama bombing Libya, Somalia, Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and, etc, his use of a “Kill List” and executing Americans without the due process that’s guaranteed to us under the Bill of Rights, the thing that upsets me the most about his regime and the Democrats, in general, is, not only the refusal to hold the Bush regime accountable for war crimes and crimes against the peace and humanity, but how Obama’s DOJ protects them while persecuting people like me for being a war-tax resister and alleged whistle blowers like Bradley Manning who are trying to STOP THE WAR CRIMES.

Recently, two significant things happened: Obama’s DOJ dropped yet another prosecution against war crimes which happened under the Bush stain, this time for the deaths of detainees in custody due to torture by the CIA. Of course Eric Holder’s job is to protect real criminals, not prosecute them.
Then,  Nobel Peace Prize winner, Bishop Desmond Tutu, came out in favor of George Bush and his poodle, Tony Blair, being tried at The Hague for the war in Iraq.
Of course, I have been calling for that for eight years. Accountability is personal to me: I want justice for my son’s death and the death of over one million others. However, I am just a Nobel Peace Prize reject, and I wouldn’t stop there! However, the Nobel Peace Laureate, Obama has carried on the war crimes of the US war machine and his administration should be brought up on charges in The Hague, too.

I am running for Vice Presidency of the US, not because I think Barr/Sheehan 2012 will be victorious, and we will “clean house” in DC (but we would); I am running to challenge some very cores of the Mythocracy of this country: that there is a difference between the Democrats and Republicans or that elections “matter” or are even legitimate. Unfortunately, we will not be able to vote our way out of the mess we are in and socialist revolution is the only way out.

I have seen socialist revolution in action in other countries and I know we can do it here…it will just take a little more sacrifice than walking a few doors down on Election Day to cast your vote for more war, more economic oppression, and more environmental devastation.

The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.


 


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