She was a strong supporter of the 1999 NATO bombing of Yugoslavia- a war just as illegal and deceitful as the Iraq war.
She defended the bombing of Serbian State television- in which 16 civilians were killed- and which was denounced by Amnesty International as a ‘war crime’.
In 2003, instead of following Robin Cook’s example, and resigning from the Cabinet before the Iraq war, she opted to stay in it.
And although she told Tony Blair the need for United Nations (UN) backing "was critical", to give the military action "maximum authority", she was quite happy to support a war without UN backing four years earlier.
Sorry, Clare, but you're no anti-war heroine.
4 comments:
Thank you Neil. I posted a similar comment on the Guardian CIF. I also mentioned how Short had described those opposed to the NATO bombing of Serbia as "traitors". In those days it was the Blair and Clare Show when it felt good to stand on Mount Olympus and pour scorn on defenders of international law. Maybe poor Clare reckoned her support of the Bliar gave her some leverage over Iraq. Still, she has dealt a blow to the Evil One with her testimony. But you are right, she is a pathetic excuse for an anti-war spokesperson.
I just wanted to add that the one who emerges with the least credit in the Iraq fiasco is not the Bliar but his toady Straw who could not tell the difference between the sound legal advice from the FO (his own department) and the squeals of a NuLabour gang member (ie. Lord Goldsmith). What we have, of course, is a "joint criminal conspiracy". I am sure there are many Serbs who will appreciate the irony.
100% Neil. Her attempt to redefine anybody who didn't support that war, knowingly fought to promote genocide as not being entitled to call themselves socialist was truly obscene.
Reading Lord Goldsmith's testimony it is clear that what changed his opinion, apart from being legally rednited to Washington for intense briefing, was that Blair had previously got away with the "new legal theory" that all you had to do to make it legal was to lie convincingly. Iraq is merely the lesser continuabn=nce of a right to criminality established over Yugoslavia.
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