Why Bush and Blair Should be Prosecuted for War Crimes » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair recently
stated that air strikes and drones should be used once again on Iraq to
stem recent gains by extremists in that country. Mr. Blair is oblivious
of the responsibility he shares with former U.S. president George W.
Bush on account of one of the most serious breaches of international law
in recent times. The prosecution of Mr. Blair and Mr. Bush, along the
lines of similar trials conducted in Argentina, Chile and Peru, is the
only fitting response to such careless remarks.
A reminder of Iraq’s tragic events is in order: George W. Bush and
his advisers were planning a premeditated attack on Iraq to secure
“regime change” even before he took power in January 2001. Such a plan
is described in detailed in the document “Rebuilding America’s Defenses:
Strategies, Forces and Resources For A New Century,” written in 2000 by
the neoconservative think tank Project for the New American Century.
In January of 2003, a group of U.S law professors warned President
Bush that he and senior officials of his government could be prosecuted
for war crimes if military intervention were to violate international
humanitarian law. Similar warnings were given to British Prime Minister
Tony Blair and to Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien by the New
York-based Center for Constitutional Rights. The prosecution case finds
strong support in both treaty-law and customary international law, as
reflected in the U.N. Charter and the Nuremberg Principles.
