Guardian: War critics astonished as [Perle] admits invasion was illegal

[grytpype]

International lawyers and anti-war campaigners reacted with astonishment yesterday after the influential Pentagon hawk Richard Perle conceded that the invasion of Iraq had been illegal.

In a startling break with the official White House and Downing Street lines, Mr Perle told an audience in London: "I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing."

President George Bush has consistently argued that the war was legal either because of existing UN security council resolutions on Iraq - also the British government's publicly stated view - or as an act of self-defence permitted by international law.

But Mr Perle, a key member of the defence policy board, which advises the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said that "international law ... would have required us to leave Saddam Hussein alone", and this would have been morally unacceptable.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1089042,00.html

[Jack Rabbit]

1. Well, he's half right

International law stood in the way and they ran right over it. It wasn't the right thing.

Would you like to present your deposition ot an international tribunal for war crimes in Iraq, Mr. Perle?

[wtmusic]

3. exactly

now can we proceed with the trial?

[lumpy]

2. That kind of blows the excuses for invading Iraq.

Of course, everyone with half a brain knows the WMDs and imminent danger thing was a pack of lies. Moral people believe killing innocents in the quest to kill a regime is equally immoral.

[wtmusic]

4. the height of hypocrisy

"no practical mechanism consistent with the rules of the UN for dealing with Saddam Hussein"

what a fucking arrogant, self-aggrandizing Nazi.

[greyl]

5. If he's claiming that a post-conventional ethic

was being followed in the admin that gave them the moral authority to invade Iraq, he's still full of shit. Abortion clinic bombers claim similar moral imperatives when they attempt to skirt responsibility, but the logic isn't really post-conventional at all and just doesn't hold up to reason.

From a global perspective, Perl and the bush admin were wrong legally, bad ethically, and incorrect logically. The perspectives that view value in the Invasion are from the dim eyes of those that will profit financially, Toby Keith fans, and professional consumers with no mind to invest beyond the studying of ikea catalogs. -and the like.

[truthisfreedom]

6. dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=229566&mesg_id=229566