20 years after the invasion of Iraq – the biggest war criminals of this century are still free

“George Bush – TERRORIST, Tony Blair – TERRORIST, John Howard – TERRORIST” has been among the chants that have resonated through the last 20 years in anti-war protests since the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2023. (George Bush Jr was US President, Tony Blair was UK Prime Minister and John Howard was Australia’s Prime Minister. It was this triumvirate of liars and frauds, without a sliver of morality to share between them, who led the invasion) 

Opposing the war was the biggest mobilisation of humanity the planet has ever seen. Across the globe some 15 million marched and demonstrated against the pending invasion in the middle of February 2003.

The anti-war movement was right on every point. The justification for the invasion was that Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was developing weapons of mass destruction for use to extend his power base in the Middle East and threaten western interests. US and UK intelligence knew this wasn’t true and the vast majority of humanity was deeply sceptical to say the least but the big players simply lied. In the US the sales job for war was easiest with the likes of politicians like Joe Biden in total support (Biden loves wars – as far as I know he has never opposed any US-led war led by either Democrats or Republicans) It was harder sell in the UK so UK officials “sexed-up” a tame dossier on Iraq making the bizarre claim the UK was just 45 minutes away from any missiles sent from Iraq. The fact Iraq had no missiles didn’t stop the lies.

As the invasion progressed no “weapons of mass destruction” were found and the war criminals then changed focus to say they had gotten rid of a tyrant dictator and they were bringing democracy to Iraq which would be a model state for the region.  

In fact it was an old-fashioned imperial military adventure the chief beneficiary of which was the US arms industry. 400,000 Iraqis died, a US puppet was installed as Prime Minister and the country was plunged into sectarian conflict from which it is only slowly emerging today.

It’s worth remembering the courage and principle of Katharine Gun, a translator working for the UK Government Communications Security Bureau (the UK equivalent of our GCSB) who leaked to the media a top-secret memo which was sent to the “five eyes” intelligence agencies from Frank Koza in the US National Security Agency. At the time the US was trying to get the UN Security Council to pass a resolution approving the invasion but knowing this would be difficult the memo requested the five eyes partners, which included New Zealand, to dig up any dirt they could find on the individuals on the UN Security Council so they could be pressured to vote to authorise an invasion. Gun was charged under the Official Secrets Act but the changes were dropped because a full trial would have revealed that even British government lawyers believed the invasion was illegal. 

It’s also worth remembering the estimated one million Iraqi children who died because US sanctions on Iraq through the 1990s deprived them of medical support. When challenged later about this former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said the price in Iraqi children’s lives was “worth it”. 

If we had a rules-based international order, as most of the world claims we need then war mongering criminals like George Bush, Tony Blair and John Howard, and a host of others, would be spending the rest of their miserable lives in prison. Alas this has not happened yet but the experience of Chilean dictator General Pinochet signal a possible, positive way forward.

When Pinochet was on a visit to Spain he was indicted for massive human rights abuses and was arrested in London six days later. He was kept under house arrest for 18 months but then released. The UK would not send him to the Hague for trial claiming he was old and sick and it would be unfair. So the UK protected him from trial for the numerous human rights violations, killings, disappearances, murder and mayhem he presided over after leading a US-supported coup against the democratically-elected socialist government of Salvador Allende.  

Like the UK, New Zealand has also protected war criminals. Israeli general Moshe Ya’alon – the butcher of Qana – was visiting New Zealand when a legal case against him succeeded and the Auckland District Court issued an arrest warrant for him to be tried on suspicion of war crimes.  

The details are here.

In 1996 Ya’alon was identified as the person behind the shelling of the United Nations compound at Qana in Southern Lebanon in which more than 100 civilians were killed. In the ensuing investigation the United Nations found the Israeli military had violated international law.

Then in 2002 Ya’alon directed the bombing of the densely populated Al Daraj neighbourhood of Gaza City to assassinate Hamas commander Salah Shehadeh. 15 were killed and 150 injured. Seven died in Mr Ra’ed Mattar’s household when his house was completely destroyed. Mr Mattar was a war crimes complainant against Ya’alon.

Detailed evidence against Ya’alon was presented to the Auckland District Court and after three days consideration Judge Avinash Deobhakta found a prima facie case was established of a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention 1949, which is a criminal offence in New Zealand under the Geneva Conventions Act 1958, and International Crimes and International Criminal Court Act 2000.

Deobhakta said there were “good and sufficient” reasons” for Ya’alon to stand trial for war crimes and issued a warrant for his arrest.

Unfortunately, the arrest warrant was never enacted because in an act of political cowardice, Deputy Prime Minister and Attorney General at the time, Michael Cullen, quashed it and Ya’alon was free to leave.

We have long way to go before political leaders treat war crimes seriously but in the meantime at least the war criminals Bush, Blair, Howard and Ya’alon will need to be careful where they go on holiday.