We live in extremely dangerous and troubled times whenever the Laws of War are subverted by the politics of war and the Rule of Law by the Rule of Force.

The UN charter is extremely clear in stating that international disputes are to be referred to the International Court of Justice for Settlement. A State can only use force in response to a direct attack or if it is authorised by the Security Council under article 42 of the UN Charter. Furthermore, “weapons of mass destruction” in Iraq quickly became weapons of mass deception.

Both the UN Security Council and the General Assembly had voted overwhelmingly against the use of force in Iraq. Yet the US and the UK took the law into their own hands and invaded Iraq despite the fact that over half a million children there had already died as a result of years of crippling sanctions, and that CIA whistleblowers had stated that Iraq had shown it would comply with any UN requests just to have the sanctions lifted.

When no WMDs were found, the excuse suddenly changed to “Saddam Hussein was a ruthless dictator”, as they argued in Libya and again now in Syria. But exactly what parts of “Regime change is illegal”, and “invasion of a State is a war crime unless sanctioned by the UN Security Council”, do they persistently fail to understand?

Besides, if Hussein was known to be so ruthless, why did the US rush to secretly sell arms to him in the 1980s in the first place, and even anthrax, as confirmed by a congressional inquiry? This fuelled a horrendous eight-year war against Iran which unleashed so much suffering and animosity between Sunnis and Shiites. In November 1983, US Secretary of State George Schulz was informed of daily Iraqi uses of chemical weapons against Iran, yet a month later, US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld pledged full support to Hussein.

Historically the UK has adopted the policy that no other power would be allowed to intervene in a former British colony unless the UK was also involved – a post-colonial sphere of influence and turf warfare. Seen in this light, Tony Blair’s statements to the people that “the US was going to war with or without us”, and to George W. Bush that “I will be with you whatever”, add a very sinister twist to the plot.

The aftermath of the invasion led to another million Iraqi deaths, the crossing of Iraq’s uncontrolled borders by Islamic militants fleeing the other war in Afghanistan, the dismantling of Iraq’s army and the reduction of Iraq to a failed State. The said militants subsequently set up Daesh in Iraq, which spilled across the Middle East, with major repercussions also on European soil, including mass immigration as people flee the war zones. What went around in Iraq has come around in Europe!

What went around in Iraq has come around in Europe

The invasion of Iraq was nothing less than a geopolitical catastrophe of epic global proportions. Yet Blair, his voice shaking down to his boots, has again tried to convince the world that it is better off now that Hussein is gone.

But it gets worse, much worse. It was revealed in 2007 by the respected General Wesley Clark, a former Supreme Allied Commander of Nato turned whistleblower, that “we’re going to take out seven countries in five years: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Iran”. And of course, we all know the chaos that has been reigning in all these countries, the prolonged sanctions against Iran, and the splitting in two of oil-rich Sudan.

To truly gauge what Machiavellian forces are at work, one need only read Zbigniew Brzezinski’s 1997 The Grand Chessboard, American Primacy and its Geostrategic Impera­tives, which echoes what Blair himself defined, in a declassified letter to Bush, as “a mission to create a global agenda”.

This is what Brzezinski, National Security Advisor to President Jimmy Carter, had to say in pages 31 to 35: “It is imperative that no Eurasian challenger emerges, capable of dominating Eurasia and thus of also challenging America...” By the way, the EU is also a challenger to US hegemony.

“...The formulation of a comprehensive and integrated Eurasian geo-strategy is therefore the purpose of this book... A power that dominates Eurasia would control two of the world’s three most advanced and economically productive regions... The pursuit of power is not a goal that commands popu­lar passion, except in conditions of a sudden threat... Democracy is inimical to imperial mobilisation”.

The American think tank Project for a New American Century, which included Bush, Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz, shockingly called for the “toppling of non-complying regimes, abrogation of international treaties, control of the world’s energy sources, militarisation of outer space, total control of cyberspace, and the willingness to use nuclear wea­pons to achieve ‘American’ goals”.

Just this month, e-mails were leaked of General Philip Breedlove, who was Nato Supreme Allied Commander Europe, exposing his efforts to undermine the less hawkish elements of the US Government headed by Barack Obama, in order to force a US-Russia conflict. The disgraced general was thankfully made to resign on May 4, 2016.

The invasion of Iraq was not just bad poli­cy and illegal; it was part of a shrewd and highly dangerous military and geo­political agenda so clearly laid out in books, policy papers, declassified letters and leaked e-mails. The truth is out!

So where do we go from here? In the wake of the Chilcot Report, there is talk of class action cases against Blair and other Cabinet Ministers for “wrongful death”. This could prove to create a major historical precedent, whereby the People may well start to take direct legal action whenever the International Rule of Law is ignored by its leaders, hopefully deterring future warmongers in the West.

Rodolfo Ragonesi is a lawyer and researcher in international affairs.

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