The Iraqi War Won’t Likely be Reduced to an “Academic Argument”

From The Associated Press:

WASHINGTON April 18, 2008, 02:22 am ET · Roughly one in every five U.S. troops who have survived the bombs and other dangers of Iraq and Afghanistan now suffers from major depression or post-traumatic stress, an independent study said Thursday. It estimated the toll at 300,000 or more.

As many or more report possible brain injuries from explosions or other head wounds, said the study, the first major survey from outside the government…

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89722093

THE UNITED NATIONS, INTERNATIONAL LAW, AND THE WAR IN IRAQ:

International Law On the Use of Force

… Powell’s mission—like that of his colleagues over the past months—was to fit the Bush administration’s case against Saddam Hussein into the U.N. structures governing the use of force as laid out in the U.N. Charter. Whether the United States chooses to continue to pursue this path or not has serious implications for the future of international law and the United Nations.

The international legal rules governing the use of force take as their starting point Article 2(4) of the U.N. Charter, which prohibits any nation from using force against another. The charter allows for only two exceptions to this rule: when force is required in self-defense (Article 51) or when the Security Council authorizes the use of force to protect international peace and security (Chapter VII)…

http://www.worldpress.org/specials/iraq/

Pentagon insider attacks war plan:

A former Pentagon official has written a book attacking Colin Powell, the CIA and other US officials over the US-led Iraq war, the Washington Post reports.

As under secretary of defence until 2005 Douglas Feith was closely involved with the planning of the invasion.

However, in “War and Decision”, he blames officials outside the Pentagon for seriously mismanaging the invasion and occupation, the Post reports…

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7286683.stm

Hans Blix: Iraq Five years on - a War of utter folly

Hans Blix was head of UN inspections in Iraq in 2003

Responsibility for this spectacular tragedy must lie with those who ignored the facts five years ago

* The Guardian,
* Thursday March 20 2008

The invasion of Iraq in 2003 was a tragedy - for Iraq, for the US, for the UN, for truth and human dignity. I can only see one gain: the end of Saddam Hussein, a murderous tyrant. Had the war not finished him he would, in all likelihood, have become another Gadafy or Castro; an oppressor of his own people but no longer a threat to the world. Iraq was on its knees after a decade of sanctions.

The elimination of weapons of mass destruction was the declared main aim of the war. It is improbable that the governments of the alliance could have sold the war to their parliaments on any other grounds. That they believed in the weapons’ existence in the autumn of 2002 is understandable. Why had the Iraqis stopped UN inspectors during the 90s if they had nothing to hide? Responsibility for the war must rest, though, on what those launching it knew by March 2003.

By then, Unmovic inspectors had carried out some 700 inspections at 500 sites without finding prohibited weapons. The contract that George Bush held up before Congress to show that Iraq was purchasing uranium oxide was proved to be a forgery. The allied powers were on thin ice, but they preferred to replace question marks with exclamation marks…

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/mar/20/iraq.usa

Jason Linkins
The Huffington Post

McCain: We’ll Look Back On Iraq As An ‘Academic Argument’

Critically, however, McCain’s willingness to scrutinize these failures do not go so far as to analyze the underlying strategic decision to go to war with Iraq at all, a decision that has greatly benefited the larger al Qaeda organization in Afghanistan and Pakistan…

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/04/16/mccain-well-look-back-on_n_96979.html

Mr. McCain seems to see the start of the Iraq war as an “activity” that only concerned the Bush team. International law seemed to have been of no consequence. Mr. McCain, like Mr. Bush, has not bothered to explain the Bush Team’s rationale for war with Iraq. Was it a private war? A private war will not likely play well with the American electorate.