The Hutton Enquiry and the War in Iraq

It is important that the world has no illusions as to where the crux of the matter lies and what are the important issues at stake
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is called to testify before a court of law to ascertain how the process was handled which resulted in the death of an expert on WMD, who always claimed that the case for way against Iraq based on the supposition that Saddam Hussein had WMD and could deploy them in 45 minutes was without foundation.

The crux of the matter is not whether Tony Blair indicated that David Kelly was the source used by the BBC, the first British news organism to claim that someone with the proper knowledge had great reservations about the veracity of the contents of the dossier which in turn was the causus belli of the USA and UK against Iraq.

The crux of the matter is not whether David Kelly committed suicide, assuming he did, because he was exposed in public or whether he committed suicide because he had broken internal rules of publicizing information and knew he would be punished.

The crux of the matter is not whether Tony Blair or his Director of Communications, Alistair Campbell, decides how the country is run and the crux of the matter is not whether Saddam Hussein had to be deposed because he was a tyrant.

The crux of the matter basically and very simply has to do with principles; principles towards which Mankind has striven so hard and for so long with so much dedication, love, hope and energy, millions of lives having been lost during this quest. To insult and denigrate these values is to become morally involved in these deaths and stab in the back all those who have fought for freedom and democracy and lost their lives, or their loved ones, in so doing.

The values in question for which we have fought so hard are the honesty and integrity of the leaders of our democracies. Many political models were tried and tested before Mankind reached the conclusion that representative, parliamentary democracy is the least bad of a lot of bad options, a process which was completed recently in Russia, after the transition from the Soviet Union to the Russian Federation.

This democracy, which is synonymous with freedom, or should be, has to do with dialogue, discussion and exchange of opinions, using diplomacy as a means of persuasion, not demagogy, arrogance, overbearing and force of arms. These have long since been discarded by each and every country which calls itself civilized.

This modern democracy is based internally upon parliaments and externally, on the United Nations Organization, whose Charter, upon the act of signing, binds its signatories to a series of rules, principally the use of the Security Council for crisis management.

Now we reach the crux of the matter. The Bush regime had decided to attack Iraq and remove its President, His Excellency Saddam Hussein, from power, a long time ago. All the signs point towards this scenario, including the mention of Saddam Hussein every time the name of Osama bin Laden was brought up - an absurdity since anyone with a modicum of knowledge about the Islamic world knows only too well that the two hated each other - it was bin Laden who wanted to expel the Iraqi forces from Kuwait.

The only connection between the administration of Saddam Hussein with international terrorism started after the illegal and terrorist attack by the United States of America and its lackeys, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain, Poland and Australia, countries whose leaders demonstrated a total lack of courage and principles in not drawing the line between democracy and freedom on one hand and fascism and demagogy on the other. To participate in murder or to support it is one and the same thing.

Because there was no legal reason to attack Iraq, the Bush regime and its lackeys decided, against the collective will of Mankind, to proceed with this act of mass butchery which they are all guilty of, without using and worse still, despising, the properly constituted institutions to manage the crisis through democratic means, based on discussion of ideas on a basis of equality of status. They decided to attack without going through the UNSC, knowing that a second resolution was always necessary under the terms of any and all of the documents which composed the UN Resolutions pertinent to the issue.

Ten thousand civilians murdered by the Coalition forces. 16,000 civilians mutilated. Twenty-six thousand people, representing who knows how many families destroyed or affected by a savage and barbaric attack without any legal foundation whatsoever. Being illegal, those who perpetrated this act of evil, or supported it, are as guilty as the war criminals who butchered so many thousands of innocent people.

The crux of the matter is this and let there be no doubts: it cannot be said that the death of David Kelly was any more tragic than the death of Iraqi civilians or the death of a British or American soldier - the loss of human life is always a tragedy.

The crux of the matter is that Mankind must remember what we have witnessed this year, at the beginning of the Third Millennium - the worst outrage against international law and against world public opinion since the Second World War.

That the leaders in question acted under the assumption that what they were doing was right, let there be no doubt whatsoever. However, Mankind cannot and must not accept a world order in which leaders act without obeying basic principles and the properly constituted institutions, of which they are full members and by whose rules they are bound.

In the United Kingdom, the Hutton Inquiry tries to get at the truth and it would be an injustice to forget that it was the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, who called for the independent inquiry to be set up, to leave no stone unturned until the truth was found. However, 26,000 people are either buried or missing or amputated or mutilated.

This is the crux of the matter. What is so incredible is that the world can accept such terrific acts of barbarity with a shrug of the shoulders, how these murderers can still get up every day and carry on in their positions and how they can face the image in the mirror every morning when they shave - or do they shave blindfolded?