Should Bush and Blair be tried for war crimes?

[Gandalf]

There's a HUGE difference between trying Slobidan "Genocide" Milosevic and George "Cocaine" Bush and Tony "Pseudo-labor" Blair. I loathe Bush, and to a lesser extend Blair, and almost everything they stand for, but to think that they could be tried for war crimes, or that their respective nations would allow that to happen is absurd.

On your final point, there is no doubt that the political elite would fight tooth and nail not to allow it to happen as it would set a scary precedent for them. But I'm sure that if you were to conduct polls amongst the general population of both the U.S and U.K you would see a lot of people indicating that these men should be held accountable for the acts they have commited. As far as I recall most polls showed that support for the war was wavering prior to the invasion and world wide there was little support for the actions the U.S. and Britain were about to embark upon. In the eyes of the world, these people probably are war criminals.

I would be absolutely astounded if any more than a very small minority of Americans felt that Bush should be tried for war crimes. I have no idea what the sentiment is like in the U.K.

I could see the U.S. arguing more highly for it than you are suggesting, but that is just speculation on my part. I have no actual polls to go on, it would be interesting to find out. Amongst the UK, I would speculate that it would be far higher. We were far less willing to go along with the war and sentiments were far more in line with international sentiment. Even with all the drivel coming from the media and the government trying to build it all up, we were just not so into it. The fall out was inevitable and with all the bullshit now having been made known, I imagine people are angrier than ever. The U.S. population was seemingly far easier to dupe and I struggle to see the fallout having the same kind of impact.