Are we Brits really as bright as we think?

Millions of British and empire casualties in 4 years to stop Germany rivaling the British Empire with their own collection of countries ruled by Kaiser Bill.  Were we out of our minds?

It was not as though we were attacked first, either.  We were safe and sound, well away from all the action across the North Sea.

It was not as though we were in danger of being invaded.  And, we were never at risk of invasion throughout this four year idiocy.

Our army was far too small a band of five divisions to ever stop Belgian neutrality from being violated by the plucky Brits coming to their rescue to drive the German troops back to their own border.  The 1839 treaty was simply an excuse for doing what Churchill was desperate to do - go to war.  Throughout the mad month of July 1914, we failed to take the normal precautionary measures: to put our troops on the Belgian border with Germany; we failed to bring in conscription, failed to rearm.  In the 19th century, we had staid our hand and chose our own time to go to war on the mainland.  Even then, it was not unknown for us to break our international obligations, treaties and promises when it suited us.  The 1839 treaty was a less than honest excuse that the politicians put about to justify their idiocy.  It was not the reason for war.  And, we were not in danger of being attacked.

Yet, Asquith and Churchill somehow thought that our security was being threatened.  The Cabinet was wrong to take us to war.  Less than honest and competent - and war mongering, in my book.

In addition, according to historian Niall Ferguson (Feb 2014 'BBC History Magazine'), the Liberal government thought they had better go to war to prevent resignations that would then have brought in the Tory government.  What a disgraceful reason to send young men to war!  Even after more than four years, there was still so much unfinished business, resentment and even hatred after the one-sided Treaty of Versailles, that many historians believe it led to part two of the Great War in 1939.

Just as we all believed our security was being threatened after the attack on the twin towers in New York in 2001.  Millions then lost their homes, or became refugees or were injured and killed in the War of Terrorism against Arabs in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Was this fair and proportionate?  Or, are we the war criminals?

Remembering what went wrong over our so virtuous military intervention in Iraq

This is written ten years on since London was awash with 1-2 million opponents of our nation's intention to attack, invade and occupy Iraq.  "Britain's biggest ever political protest"  (Andrew Murray in the Guardian 15.2.2013).  This blog has partly relied on that article (here, in double quotation marks) to catalogue the many blunders of those who should have been men and women of integrity and honour.  Instead, I think, they became war criminals and terrorists.

1. Iraq is steeped in history.  It is the birthplace of civilisation.  Indeed, the birthplace of Abraham who was the father/founder of three world faiths - Judaism, Christianity and Islam.  Even so, they are at loggerheads and, there is an absence of understanding or even respect amongst them.  Each faith believes that it alone has the Truth and Right on their side.
2. There was an over reliance on what the enemies of Saddam Hussein were saying about his weapons of mass destruction (WMD).  An over-reliance because he was no longer our friend but was our enemy by this time.
3. An under-reliance on finding the evidence for WMD before the attack commenced on the 19 February 2003.
4. Our crime of aggression in attacking Iraq seems to have been about finishing the job from the Gulf War of 1990/1, when we failed to remove Saddam Hussein and had been kicking ourselves ever since for not doing so.
5. Saddam was no friend of Al-Qaeda, not an Islamist or militant Muslim and, he governed a secular state.  Yet, it was widely believed that he was, in order to help justify attack, regime change and occupation by ourselves - and retribution for 9/11!
6. The UN inspectors were not allowed to finish the job before our premature and over-enthusiastic desire for the opening shock and awe attack.  Unseemly haste, sidelining, even dismissing our own, Western, weapons inspectors.  They didn't come up with what we wanted them to say, so we went ahead anyway before their final and definitive report confirming that there were almost certainly no WMD.
7. The UN did not "give the attack a patina of legality." Andrew Murray (patina = shallow covering or cosmetic gloss)
8. The war did not make the Christian West safer from terrorism.  Quite the opposite, in fact.  We saw martyrdom videos showing that the martyrs saw themselves as soldiers defending Islam from the Christian Western attackers and occupiers of holy Muslim soil.
9. The Iraqi people did not welcome the invaders as liberators.
10. "Tony Blair was motivated solely by his secret pledges to stand by President Bush come what may."
11. "Consideration of legality and British public opinion scarcely registered with him."
12. "The Iraqi people have paid a staggering price" for the unwarranted and unlawful eight year war.
13. "The war was justified by the dodgy dossier" and a student's dissertation.
14. Justified by: "The 45 mins Iraqi missile threat."
15. There was "Duplicitous diplomacy."
16. Saddam Hussein - a one time ally and excellent customer of our highly valued arms industry and traders.
17.  This man and many tens of thousands of his citizens were wiped off the face of the map without a trial for him or, UN support for such extra-judicial killing by ourselves.
18. Even after Saddam was removed from power and we were in total control throughout the country, still no WMD could be found.  In other words, we were completely fooled and our intelligence experts and politicians proved, yet again, to be in the wrong.  They were led up the garden path.  They are guilty and were gullible.  They are war criminals.