For legal reasons it may perhaps be easier for me to post this than a citizen of the US. This morning the BBC handled without comment as a technical matter with a brief clip of a black soldier being led away. The incredible mystery from 11pm last night London time, of how 7-8 leaders of a US division could have a grenade rolled into their tent at 2 am, became revealed. Last night there was helpless speculation that this must have been the work of the terrorist group Al Ansar supposedly linked to Saddam. but how could such a terrorist have got past all the security restrictions??
Now all is revealed. It only takes 1 in 10,000 troops to be so unconvinced of the justice of this war, so demoralised with it, and so committed to another version of morality to have another devastating effect on morale.
This man was either mentally ill or incredibly brave. What he did is no doubt illegal.
But this war is illegal.
Suddenly it is no longer an abstract question whether the Bush and Blair will be taken before the new International Criminal Court. It becomes exeedingly urgent and valuable that this man has a vigorous campaign for his legal rights. He has placed the illegality of this war at the centre of legal proceedings.
His case must not be swept under the carpet in disgrace. He must have full access to natural justice. He needs a defence campaign with funds to ensure he gets the best lawyers in his defence. The arbitrariness of military justice must be broken open. The defence must be able to argue in mitigation that the war is illegal, with all the votes and speeches in the Security Council being part of the evidence. The Defence campaign obviously needs to be mainly US , but there are some very good progressive civil rights lawyers in the UK who should be recruited into the campaign.
Hopefully the man is not mentally ill, though they may be trying to make him mentally ill now. How much sleep did he get in the 24 hours before the attack?
If this man faces execution, as presumably he must, there needs to be a campaign across the USA and perhaps the world, in his defence. That would have a tremendously dynamic effect on the balance of opinion in the USA and the world, about the lynch mob hegemonistic policies of George Bush.
If the Bush administration is wise, it will hush this all up very quickly. If the anti-war movement is canny, it will give it publicity. But already preemptively every US officer in Iraq is going to have to think much more carefully about the morale of his exhausted troops. He must look over his shoulder and under his bed. Oh, and soldiers had better not be allowed to have grenades in their possession.
Chris Burford London
PS later CNN reported that they had seen him with blood on his shirt
An agitated military analyst spluttered that he had confidence in the investigatory procedure.
I dont think so.