RIFLE...CHECK, MUNITIONS...CHECK, LAWYER...

Army chiefs feared Iraq war illegal just days before start (Martin Bright, Antony Barnett and Gaby Hinsliff, The Observer, 29/02/04)

Britain's Army chiefs refused to go to war in Iraq amid fears over its legality just days before the British and American bombing campaign was launched, The Observer can today reveal.

The explosive new details about military doubts over the legality of the invasion are detailed in unpublished legal documents in the case of Katharine Gun, the intelligence officer dramatically freed last week after Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney-General, dropped charges against her of breaking the Official Secrets Act.

The disclosure came as it also emerged that Goldsmith was forced hastily to redraft his legal advice to Tony Blair to give an 'unequivocal' assurance to the armed forces that the conflict would not be illegal.

Refusing to commit troops already stationed in Kuwait, senior military leaders were adamant that war could not begin until they were satisfied that neither they nor their men could be tried. Some 10 days later, Britain and America began the campaign...

The leftist spin, of course, is that the High Command knew it was doing something illegal. More likely they were simply trying to cover themselves and their troops from the consequences of obeying the orders of political masters who had foolishly surrendered jurisdiction over them to an international legal system controlled by their adversaries.

Kyoto and the refusal of the U. S. to submit to the ICC enrage the international left more than any other issues, including the war on terror and the invasion of Iraq. Such obstreperous behaviour directly challenges the brave new world with which they are trying to replace Western civilization. It is pathetic to see the principles that underlay Nuremberg descend into a farce where the personnel files of troops fighting against genocidal madmen must be padded with legal opinions to protect them from the new barbarians.