The Profits of War

Here is the C Span 3 video of the Conyers hearing on Thursday.

It's pretty long.

So is this war.

But not nearly so long as it is for those

who have loved ones,

who gave up their lives.

Or for those who lost

their legs,

or their sanity,

to the profits of war.

And here is Philippe Sands, director of the Centre for International Courts and Tribunals at the University College in London.

As a barrister, he was involved in cases before English and international courts, including those concerning the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, the British detainees at Guantanamo Bay and detained asylum seekers in the UK.

He's author of Lawless World - America and the making and breaking of international rules.

Professor Sands says that British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Australian Prime Minister Howard could face charges amid claims that the Iraq war was illegal.

Professor Sands also says United States President George W Bush and US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld also could find themselves in similar predicaments.

Professor Sands says if Mr Blair or Mr Howard travel outside of their own countries after they've left office, they could face prosecution.


And here is a NYT story about a new book by Larry Diamond, a former member of the Coalition Authority.

Mr. Diamond suggests that the decision to turn the American presence into a formal occupation fueled Iraqi suspicions that the United States did not want a truly sovereign Iraq but wanted to dictate terms that would serve America's own economic (i.e. oil) and military interests.

When Mr. Diamond returned to the United States in April 2004, he says he wrote his old friend Ms. Rice a long, confidential memo, recommending that America "disavow any long-term military aspirations in Iraq," establish a target date for the withdrawal of our forces, respond to concerns about Iraqi detainees, proceed vigorously with a plan to disarm and reintegrate Iraqi militias and send "significantly more troops and equipment."

The memo concluded: "If we do not develop soon a coherent counter-insurgency plan combining political and military, Iraqi and international initiatives, we will creep closer and closer to that tipping point, beyond which so many Iraqis sympathize with or join the insurgency that we cannot prevail at any bearable price."

Whose price?

Those who pay.

Or those who profit.


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