> http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn03272003.html
> From "Plain Sailing" to "Where the Hell Are We?" to "Up the Creek"
> By ALEXANDER COCKBURN
>
>
> -clip-
>
> "My constituency Labour party has just voted to recommend that Tony Blair
> reconsider his position as party leader because he gave British backing to
> a
> war against Iraq without clearly expressed support from the UN .I agree
> with
> this motion. I also believe that since Mr Blair is going ahead with his
> support for a US attack without unambiguous UN authorisation, he should be
> branded as a war criminal and sent to The Hague. I have served in the House
> of Commons as a Labour member for 41 years,and I would never have dreamed
> of
> saying this about any one of my previous leaders. But Blair is a man who
> has
> disdain for both the House of Commons and international law. This is a
> grave
> thing to say about my leader. But it is far less serious than the results
> of
> a war that could set western Christendom against Islam.The overwhelming
> majority of international lawyers, including several who advise the
> government (such as Rabinder Singh, a partner in Cherie Booth's Matrix
> Chambers), have concluded that military action in Iraq without proper UN
> security council authorisation is illegal under international law. The
> Foreign Office's deputy legal adviser, Elizabeth Wilmhurst, resigned on
> precisely this point after 30 years' service. This puts the prime minister
> and those who will be fighting in his and President Bush's name in a
> vulnerable legal position. Already lawyers are getting phone calls from
> anxious members of the armed forces."
^^^^^^^^
CB: I don't know whether it's been said here ( lately) and I missed it, and I haven't seen it much elsewhere ( except for Congressman John Conyers), but technically Bush has violated the U.S. Constitution which gives the power to declare war exclusively to Congress. So Impeach him. I guess we'd have to get over the hump of an unconstitutional act being a high crime or misdemeanor. Criminal violation of the UN Charter is a crime in domestic law since the U.S. is a UN treaty signatory.
>
> One final quote, from a Knight Ridder story describing the Pentagon
> in-fighting, quoting an anonymous officer:" He added ruefully: 'As in
> Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan, we are using concepts and methods that
> are entirely unproved. If your strategy and assumptions are flawed, there
> is
> nothing in the well to draw from. If these guys fight and fight hard for
> Baghdad, with embedded Baathists stiffening their resistance at the point
> of
> a gun, then we are up the creek,' said one retired general. Dr. John
> Collins, a retired Army colonel and
> former chief researcher for the Library of Congress, said the worst
> scenario
> would be sending American troops to fight for Baghdad. He said every
> military commander since Sun Tzu, the ancient Chinese strategist, has hated
> urban warfare. "Military casualties normally soar on both sides; innocent
> civilians lose lives and suffer severe privation; reconstruction costs
> skyrocket," Collins said, adding that fighting for the capital would cancel
> out the allied advantages in air and armor and reduce it to an Infantry
> battle house to house, street by street."
^^^^^^^^^^
CB: The Battle of Stalingrad was famous as a landmark in the history of urban guerrilla warfare, I believe.
^^^^^
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