<HTML><BODY BGCOLOR="#3dffff"> <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px">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."</BLOCKQUOTE> ^^^^^^^^ 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. <BLOCKQUOTE TYPE=CITE style="BORDER-LEFT: #0000ff 2px solid; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px; PADDING-LEFT: 5px"> 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."</BLOCKQUOTE> ^^^^^^^^^^ CB: The Battle of Stalingrad was famous as a landmark in the history of urban guerrilla warfare, I believe. ^^^^^ </HTML>