Should Bush and Blair be tried for war crimes?

[Kirkland Laing]

Indeed. I would love it if 50 million Americans joined forces and marched on Wall Street with their guns in tow. I might even alter my anti-gun policy for such an occasion. A revolution is sorely needed right now. The forecasts are bleak and 2010 is going to be a very hard year for many. Jobs will continue to be lost and then when the temporary recovery begins to lull, yet more stimulus money will be thrown back into the void. This carry on needs to stop and the 'too big to fails' need to die. They are vampires sucking on the soul of America.

The economy will eventually recover although it may go into reverse for a while again and either way it won't seem like recovery unemployment-wise for a long time. Once they get a recovery going they can then get to work on inflating the bubble that they've just created with government money, the one that's currently propping the markets and the banking system up. When that one goes pop and people discover that the government just let the banks run riot after the 2008 meltdown while only pretending to re-regulate them and that the banks are now automatically backstopped by the government for unlimited taxpayer dough it'll be pitchfork time, probably.

You would think it would get to a point where the people just don't take it anymore. I would have thought that point might have been reached with many cities already having upwards of 20% unemployment, but we will just have to wait until it degenerates some more. It takes an awful lot of corruption and bullshit to get even the smallest reaction from people these days. And then of course you have the reactionaries like Lyle. I live in a country where hundreds of thousands protested against beef imports (of all the silly things), and yet the Americans can't even organise themselves against government and big business who are openly looting the populace. It's bizarre.

Things will have to get a lot worse before anything happens. It's going to take a bigger meltdown than last year's before a critical mass of people get motivated. There's a good chance that the economy just staggers sideways for a while, maybe back into recession once or twice in the next few years. It's hard to see any real economic recovery happening for some time but when things do pick up in a year or a decade from now we're going to see it end in another massive mass bankrupcy of the financial system, huge taxpayer bailout etc.

Anecdotal evidence from people working in the city is that bankers are getting verbal abuse on the street now. Some guy had a cup of coffee thrown over him recently but that's the worst thing I've heard of. If people in Britain actually realised how many thousands they're each going to have to pay in extra taxes or lost services over the next couple of decades to pay back the debts the bankers rang up things would be a lot worse than they currently are. Over the next few years as taxes go up/services get cut awareness should tick up quite a lot.

[Kirkland Laing]

LONDON (AFP) – Tony Blair's admission that Britain would have backed the Iraq war even if he knew it did not have weapons of mass destruction sparked outrage Sunday and calls for his prosecution for war crimes.
The former British prime minister, who backed the US-led invasion in 2003, told the BBC he would "still have thought it right to remove" Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein because of the threat he posed to the region.
Lawyers representing the deposed Iraqi leadership said they would seek to prosecute Blair following his remarks, while one newspaper commentator said it was a "game-changing admission" for the ongoing official inquiry into the war.
Former UN weapons inspector Hans Blix added: "The war was sold on the WMD, and now you feel, or hear that it was only a question of deployment of arguments, as he said, it sounds a bit like a fig leaf that was held up."
Blair is due to give evidence to the inquiry into the war, led by former civil servant John Chilcot, early next year, and the commentator in the Sunday Telegraph said the investigation's focus must now change.
"Mr Blair's game-changing admission gives them a licence to be tougher and more prosecutorial," he wrote, a call echoed by campaigners at Stop the War Coalition, who urged Chilcot's inquiry to recommend legal action against Blair.
Professor Philippe Sands, a leading international lawyer, said he believed Blair's comments had left him vulnerable to legal proceedings.
"The fact that the policy was fixed by Tony Blair irrespective of the facts on the ground, and irrespective of the legality, will now expose him more rather than less to legal difficulties," Sands told The Sunday Herald.
A lawyer for Saddam Hussein's jailed former deputy prime minister, Tareq Aziz, wrote to Britain's top legal adviser Saturday asking permission to prosecute Blair for war crimes.
In a statement Sunday, Giovanni di Stefano said the former prime minister's comments were an admission that "his aim was regime change. That is without question unlawful and subject to criminal proceedings".




Blair Iraq war admission sparks fresh outrage - Yahoo! News

[Master]

I lost all respect for Blair about going to war. He back tracked and said he would have done it anyway. He is lying to cover his mistake ridden ass. No way will he admit that all those soldiers and innocent civilians died because he could not say no to Bush.

[Gandalf]

I lost all respect for Blair about going to war. He back tracked and said he would have done it anyway. He is lying to cover his mistake ridden ass. No way will he admit that all those soldiers and innocent civilians died because he could not say no to Bush.

I think Blair has revealed himself completely by those comments. There is no doubt that this is a man who tried to decieve the public and then ignore popular opinion and carry on regardless. His comments were surprising because he was so open in admitting how he was going to do what he did no matter what the reason might need to be.

Blair should be tried and sentenced. Bush should simply have a bullet to the head as that is what they prefer over there. These men are appalling examples of the human race.

[Howlin Mad Missy]

I lost all respect for Blair about going to war. He back tracked and said he would have done it anyway. He is lying to cover his mistake ridden ass. No way will he admit that all those soldiers and innocent civilians died because he could not say no to Bush.

I think Blair has revealed himself completely by those comments. There is no doubt that this is a man who tried to decieve the public and then ignore popular opinion and carry on regardless. His comments were surprising because he was so open in admitting how he was going to do what he did no matter what the reason might need to be.

Blair should be tried and sentenced. Bush should simply have a bullet to the head as that is what they prefer over there. These men are appalling examples of the human race.

rep again when I can.

BLiar - those t-shirts seem prophetic now dont they?

[El Kabong]

rep again when I can.

BLiar - those t-shirts seem prophetic now dont they?

And yet you are all 100% in line with Blair regarding Global Warming...WTF people?

Nameless, you think Obama is bad now, just wait til next year, this was his 1st year of really having to answer questions or act on anything, in the past he used to hide behind a "present" vote instead of "yea" or "nay". Huckabee and Romney have experience...Ron Paul is good "in theory". I kind of liked Ross Perot but I think the idea of America being isolationist is just idiotic, with our economy and foreign policy we affect other countries even if we try to avoid acting on anything. Being #1 World Superpower we get drug into things anyway. And yes I like Sarkozy, he's a good guy a good leader.

The wines I have had lately are: Le Colombier Vacquyeras, Lo Zoccoliao Baccanera, Sobon Cab. Sav., Amici Cab. Sav., and I've been trying to get into whites (please PM me and suggest a few)

[Gandalf]

rep again when I can.

BLiar - those t-shirts seem prophetic now dont they?

And yet you are all 100% in line with Blair regarding Global Warming...WTF people?

Nameless, you think Obama is bad now, just wait til next year, this was his 1st year of really having to answer questions or act on anything, in the past he used to hide behind a "present" vote instead of "yea" or "nay". Huckabee and Romney have experience...Ron Paul is good "in theory". I kind of liked Ross Perot but I think the idea of America being isolationist is just idiotic, with our economy and foreign policy we affect other countries even if we try to avoid acting on anything. Being #1 World Superpower we get drug into things anyway. And yes I like Sarkozy, he's a good guy a good leader.

The wines I have had lately are: Le Colombier Vacquyeras, Lo Zoccoliao Baccanera, Sobon Cab. Sav., Amici Cab. Sav., and I've been trying to get into whites (please PM me and suggest a few)

Totally different issues, lyle. Global warming is supported by about 98% of the scientific research into the issue. You republicans are once again showing your base primitive sides. Creationism in schools anyone? Get with the programme, you philistines...