Letters: Iraq war

Published: 22 May 2007

Iraq: why Tony Blair should face a war-crime trial

Sir: Amid the media's love-in over Tony Blair's departure, an almost-consensus seems to be that he will be remembered above all for Iraq. But while much of the media tends to portray the decision to invade a defenceless country as a kind of miscalculation or tragic mistake, the anti-war movement and many international legal experts have always maintained that these actions were a war crime, and that a strong case against Blair could be made if he were ever to come before the International Criminal Court.

The United Nations Charter, agreed in 1945 to "save succeeding generations from the scourge of war", makes it clear that even if Iraqi WMDs had existed, the large-scale bombing of cities and subsequent military occupation of the country would have been wholly disproportionate. Going to war was in clear breach of Article 51 which permits "individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations", but not under lesser circumstances. Pre-emptive self-defence is justified only when the threat is instant, overwhelming and leaving no other choice or time for deliberation. It was to protect the world from wars of aggression that the UN Charter was drawn up in the first place.

At the Nuremberg Trials in 1946, the American chief prosecutor Justice Robert Jackson said: "War of aggression is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole." Since the invasion of Iraq, the US-led coalition has committed many documented human-rights abuses and breaches of the Geneva Conventions, from Abu Ghraib to the numerous massacres of civilians in towns, villages and cities.

Blair, a major player in the assault on Iraq that made such atrocities possible, will probably never face trial at The Hague, and instead go on to his "inter-faith foundation" and a lucrative career on the lecture circuit.

MICHAEL BENTLEY

EASTBOURNE, EAST SUSSEX

Brown's chance for a historic reform

Sir: Our prime minister-elect half-promises a written constitution, but without revealing what might be in it, apart from reducing the powers of our over-centralised government, and giving local people and their institutions more control over their lives. As a Scottish MP, Mr Brown must also be anxious to find an answer to the West Lothian question and to avoid the calamity of Scottish secession from the UK. And he must be casting around for ways to rekindle popular involvement in politics.

He could achieve all these aims, and secure an honoured place in history, by leading the country into acceptance of a fully federal constitution which provided for self-government for our four constituent nations, with the Westminster parliament dealing only with foreign affairs and defence, plus a few constitutional matters affecting the whole of Britain.

This would involve a written constitution and a parliament and executive for England, not as the chief purpose of the great reform (and not for narrow nationalistic reasons) but as a major consequence of it. We are already halfway there with limited (and still reversible) devolution to three of the four nations, but to escape from the West Lothian and Scottish separatist dilemmas, we need eventually to go the whole hog. Has this cautious son of the manse the imagination and courage to take the first steps in such a radical reform?

BRIAN BARDER

LONDON SW18

Sir: Chester is indeed on the edge of England (letter, 18 May) but it is also on the edge of any "region": North-west England, Western England, West Central England. Regional government here would be dominated by Liverpool and Manchester, or Birmingham.

But the big puzzle in Christopher Clayton's letter is "The real choice is between genuine regional government and current national government". What current national government? There is no current national government in England at all, a serious imbalance with the rest of the UK. Regional government without national government is cart-before-horse. If Chester can make a case for our national government being set up near Chester, so be it. Personally I favour somewhere near England's geographic centre.

CHRIS BENEY

BUSHEY, HERTFORDSHIRE

City folk down on the farm

Sir: I can assure A Farlow (letter, 15 May) that most farmers do indeed have their wits about them, and supplement their earnings by welcoming city dwellers into their varied diversification on their farms. But this is only possible in areas close to large conurbations where there is a market to be tapped. Others, living in the depths of nowhere, are forced by this government to get by on very meagre earnings and the occasional late payment from Defra.

Yes, they do pay us to lay hedges and leave our land uncultivated: it's what the public say they want; it's what this government says it wants. It allows them to nationalise the land, without too much debate. Imagine if they used this device in city finance: 25 per cent of the local supermarket shelves unstocked in an attempt to keep spending down; Tesco paid to shut its doors two days a week.

And as for bossy "Keep Out" signs, very few places in the city, with the obvious exception of retail outlets, are open to the public; the same applies in the country. The public are welcome to use footpaths to pass over the land. But they have no more right to exercise their animals and eat their picnics in my fields than I have to set out my picnic blanket in the offices of The Independent.

T R KEARSEY

PETWORTH, WEST SUSSEX

Sir: Never since Beatrix Potter has the difference between the town mouse and the country mouse been more apparent than in your letters pages.

Both A Farlow, from London, and Roger Hewell, from Bath (Letters 15 May), rail against country folk in general, farmers in particular. Our erstwhile green and pleasant land has been reduced to "the countryside", a motorway verge of which everybody wants a piece. Developers want to build on it, the EU wants to grow biofuels on it, mountain bikers want to challenge it, ramblers want to stomp all over it, four-wheel drivers want to beat it up, wind-farm opportunists want to exploit it.

The town mice believe food comes from spaghetti trees, prepackaged. The country mouse knows it comes from the soil, manure and all. A sorry, dangerous state of affairs.

JENNY CRAVEN

OVER STOWEY, SOMERSET

Livelihoods depend on felling the forest

Sir: Your report on 14 May rightly pointed up the issue of deforestation, but we do need to consider what to do for the men who are involved in such work.

In 2005, while waiting for a plane at Singapore airport I was engaged in a conversation with such workers. They were all from Malaysia and were flying on to Borneo. The contract they were working on had lasted well over a year and there was work for them for the forseeable future. I asked them why they were doing this work and explained to them some of the effects it would have on the atmosphere unless there was active replacement by way of new forests.

I was in no doubt that they did understand what they were doing, but they said that they could find no work at home and they had no alternative but to do this work to feed their families. They did not particularly like the job as they were away from home for lengthy periods and they were working in what was essentially jungle.

This is just another aspect of this serious issue.

ALEK KISLY

BRISTOL

Sir: Bob Geldof is right to be having a rant about Africa being sidelined in the blaze of spin and compromise around climate change, but not solely for his criticisms of Live Earth (report, 16 May).

The same day, it was reported that British officials believed that they were close to securing an international climate-change agreement, proposing extensions to carbon-trading schemes, and new, separate ones, for China and India's industry, some time in the future. Africa's involvement in this is limited to "a new commitment to help poor countries in Africa adapt to the change".

If I were Bob Geldof, I'd be crying "foul" with many expletives to go with it. Everyone on this planet shares the same atmosphere, and the UN defines us as "born equal", so surely we are each entitled to a fair share of the global atmosphere. We should establish a single carbon market - one in which Africa receives its carbon entitlements and can receive a market price for the sale of its unused emissions rights.

It's time we had some carbon democracy to replace the current carbon plutocracy.

NEALE UPSTONE

CAMBRIDGE

Zoo management praised in report

Sir: I was the zoo manager at Chessington World of Adventures at the time of the initial 2005 zoo inspection reported in your newspaper ("Revealed: plight of Chessington's gorillas", 12 April).

You state: "Following the report, the Tussauds Group appointed a new manager from Chester Zoo and improvements were made in the big cat and sea lion enclosures." This seems to suggest that my leaving the position as zoo manager in March 2006 was somehow the result of various negative aspects of the 2005 inspectors' report. This absolutely is not the case and as a zoo professional of over 30 years I find such a comment offensive.

My departure from the park was completely amicable. In the November 2005 zoo inspection there was absolutely no criticism of my competence as the zoo manager and the report noted that the inspectors were "impressed by the commitment and dedication of the zoo management and staff".

JOHN DINELEY

LONDON E11

An unforgettable Lear from Olivier

Sir: Your feature on Laurence Olivier (18 May) quotes Diana Rigg saying that Lear was a role Olivier "hadn't played on stage" before he made the TV version of the play in 1984. In fact, in 1946 he took the lead in his own production for the Old Vic Theatre Company and gave a magnificent performance of this progressively vindictive, raging, bewildered, mad and eventually pathetic figure.

For 60 years I have been able to impress theatre-going friends with: "I saw Laurence Olivier in King Lear". There are other reasons for my clear memory of that production: several actors gave impressive performances, including Pamela Brown, who was a terrifying Goneril, and a slim young Alec Guinness, who gave real substance to the role of the Fool, adding moments of heartbreakingly beautiful singing.

MARY GODDEN

MARGATE, KENT

Old-fashioned maths is best

Sir: This government has wasted millions of pounds, and now is intending to throw millions at the school mathematics disasters. It will not work.

I was in a county-run school in the 1930s and we did not leave school innumerate. We were taught using a blackboard and multiplication tables; not text-books and calculators.

Now that schools have re- introduced the phonics method of teaching reading, there is hope of turning around that disaster. With the re-introduction of teaching English grammar our children should now not leave school illiterate, but until calculators and text-books are removed from primary schools, and the traditional teaching methods are re-introduced, many pupils will fail to grasp the basics and will be frustrated and troublesome.

ADA TREMLETT

TIVERTON, DEVON

Menace on wheels invades our stations

Sir: I can't be the only person inconvenienced by the growing trend for anybody using anything bigger than a handbag to require it to be on wheels. Our mainline and underground stations are gradually clogging up with people pausing to either extend or return the handle of their bag - or worse still, running over your feet with them.

While the invention of the handle and wheels is a boon for suitcases, we now see apparently fit young men wheeling nothing more than a briefcase. Not too many centuries ago the menfolk of this country were capable of drawing a longbow. If the current trend continues they will soon be pulling a muscle taking out a banknote.

AGNES HEAD

LONDON SW21

Briefly... Fish and fowl

Sir: If, as Philip Moran asserts, Bombay duck is now referred to as Mumbai duck (letters, 12 May), shouldn't Peking duck now be called Beijing duck?

ALEX HAYDEN

SOUTH OCKENDON, ESSEX

A decent cuppa

Sir: Tony Blair spoke the truth for once, declaring that London is devoid of a good cup of tea. Tea at the Ritz or Savoy is simply beyond the means of most people. One savours the time when tea could be enjoyed by all in affordable and comfortable surroundings at any Lyons Corner House or teashop, Kardomah, Fullers, Black & White, Express Dairy and the ABC teashop of yesteryear. Cosmopolitan London is the poorer without them.

NORMAN WALL

WALLSEND, TYNE AND WEAR

Soldiers' right to smoke

Sir: The Government is not depriving the soldiers returning from battle "a smoke with their pint" (letter, 17 May), only asking that they do it outside.

TONY NEWTON

LIVERPOOL

Sir: You wouldn't wish a gruesome death on our soldiers in Iraq, so why wish it on them here?

STEPHANIE DIXON

BRAMHALL, CHESHIRE

Tour dates for Blair

Sir: Tony Blair's six-week farewell tour is beginning to resemble the Von Trapp family's final performance at the Salzburg Festival. Perhaps he would get a more accurate view of the world he has helped create if he spent these next six weeks working at: an over-stretched A&E department, Guantanamo Bay, a post office due for closure, a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, an inner-city comprehensive and an overcrowded prison.

DAVID EGGINGTON

SHEFFIELD

Take no notice

Sir: Although I recognise the risk that I shall immediately be identified as a paranoid geriatric, I cannot resist drawing your attention to the message which I recently observed on an M&S carrier bag. It said: "To avoid suffocation keep away from children."

S T K HESTER

BARNET, HERFORDSHIRE