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Inder Comar outside the court of appeals building. Photograph: Winni Wintermeyer for the Guardian

In the lobby of the James R Browning courthouse in San Francisco, there was a digital sign listing that days cases. At 9.30am on Monday 12 December last year, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit would hear Slep-Tone Entertainment Corp v Wired For Sound Karaoke and DJ, a case involving a karaoke trademark infringement. At 10am they would entertain Craig Yates v Sweet Potato Enterprise, Inc, a case involving a disabled mans access to a Popeyes chicken franchise. And at 11.30 they would hear Sundus Saleh v George Bush et al, the only case yet filed in the US that questions the legality of the war in Iraq.

The plaintiff was Sundus Shaker Saleh, an Iraqi teacher, artist and mother of five, who had been forced to leave Iraq in the wake of the invasion and the countrys subsequent devolution into civil war. Once prosperous, her family had lived in poverty in Amman, Jordan, since 2005.

Representing Saleh was a 37-year-old attorney who works alone and whose usual clients are small tech startups looking to protect their intellectual property. His name is Inder Comar, and if Atticus Finch were to be reimagined as a crusading, multicultural, west coast lawyer, Comar, whose mother was Mexican and father was from India, might suffice. He is handsome and quick to smile, though standing outside the courthouse on that windy Monday, he was tense. It was unclear whether the new suit was helping.

I just got it, he said. What do you think?

It was a three-piece, silver-grey, with black pinstripes. Comar had bought it a few days earlier, thinking he needed to look as professional and sane as possible, because ever since he conceived the notion of suing the planners of the war in Iraq, he had been conscious of not appearing a crackpot or dilettante. But the impact of this new suit was murky: its either the kind of thing worn by a slick Texas oilman, or the outfit a misguided teenager would wear to prom.

The day before, in Comars apartment, he told me this was the most significant hearing of his career. He had never argued a case before the Ninth Circuit, which is just one rung below the supreme court, and hadnt eaten, slept or exercised properly in weeks. Im still shocked were having a hearing, he said. But its already a victory, the fact that US judges will hear and debate this point.

The point: whether the president, vice-president and the rest of those who planned the war are personally legally culpable for its consequences. Normally the executive branch would be immune to litigation related to actions taken while in office, as are all federal employees; but this protection applies only when those employees are acting within the scope of their employment. Comar was arguing that Bush et al were acting outside that protection. Further, they had committed a crime of aggression a violation of international law.

The prospect that, in a few hours time, the three-judge panel would agree with Comar and demand that the planners of the war former president George W Bush, former vice-president Richard B Cheney, former secretary of state Colin Powell, former secretary of defence Donald Rumsfeld, former deputy secretary of defence Paul Wolfowitz and former national security adviser Condoleezza Rice be held liable for the implosion of Iraq, the deaths of more than 500,000 Iraqi civilians and the displacement of five million more, seemed highly unlikely.

Then again, Comar said, maybe they just thought, Why not give this guy his day in court?

***

Inder Comar was in law school at New York University when the war began, and while the invasion was going from bad to good to bad to catastrophic, he took a class about unprovoked aggression in international law, centred around the legal precedent set by the Nuremberg tribunal. At Nuremberg, prosecutors successfully argued that, though the Nazi leadership who perpetrated the second world war were following orders and acting within the scope of their duties as stewards of the German state, they were nonetheless liable for crimes of aggression and crimes against humanity. The Nazis had invaded sovereign nations without provocation, and could not use domestic laws to protect them. In his opening statement, Robert Jackson, the American supreme court justice and chief prosecutor, said: This trial represents mankinds desperate effort to apply the discipline of the law to statesmen who have used their powers of state to attack the foundations of the worlds peace and to commit aggressions against the rights of their neighbours.

The case seemed to Comar to have at least a few overlaps, especially after the world realised that Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction and that the planners of the invasion had first contemplated regime change in Iraq long before there was any notion of WMD. Over the next few years, international opinion began to coalesce against the legality of the war. In 2004, then UN secretary general Kofi Annan called the war illegal. The Dutch parliament called it a breach of international law. In 2009, Benjamin Ferencz, one of the American prosecutors at Nuremberg, wrote that a good argument could be made that the US invasion of Iraq was unlawful.

Comar, by then a private attorney practising in San Francisco, wondered why no one had sued the administration. Foreign citizens can sue in the US for violations of international law, so between the legal standing of an Iraqi victimised by the war and the precedents set by the Nuremberg trial, Comar thought there was a real possibility of a lawsuit. He mentioned it to fellow lawyers and former professors. Some were mildly encouraging, though none thought such a suit would go anywhere.

Meanwhile, Comar half-expected someone else to prosecute the case. There are more than 1.3 million attorneys in America, and thousands of crusading non-profits. A few lawsuits had been filed, arguing that the war was never properly authorised by Congress and thus unconstitutional. And there had been a dozen or so lawsuits against Rumsfeld for his sanctioning of the use of torture on detainees. But no one had argued that, when they planned and executed the war, the executive branch broke the law.

***

In 2013, Comar was working out of a shared office space called the Hub, surrounded by startups and non-profits. One of his office-mates had come to know a prominent Jordanian family who lived in the Bay area and, since the war, had been helping Iraqi refugees in Amman. Over the course of many months, they introduced Comar to refugees living in Jordan, among them Sundus Shaker Saleh. Comar and Saleh spoke via Skype, and in her he found a passionate and eloquent woman who, 12 years after the invasion, was no less outraged.

Saleh was born in Karkh, Baghdad, in 1966. She studied at the art institute in Baghdad and became a successful artist and teacher. The Salehs were adherents to the Sabean-Mandean faith, a religion that follows the teachings of John the Baptist but asserts a place outside the realms of Christianity or Islam. Though there were fewer than 100,000 Mandeans in Iraq before the war, they were left alone by Hussein. Whatever his crimes, he maintained an environment in which Iraqs many ancient faiths peacefully coexisted.

Comar had not planned to make his case about Trump, but if any president were to falsify facts, it would be him

After the US invasion, order evaporated and religious minorities were targeted. Saleh became an election official, and she and her family were threatened. She was assaulted, and went to the police for help, but they said they could do nothing to protect her and her children. She and her husband separated. He took their eldest son with him, and she took the rest of the family to Jordan, where they have lived since 2005 without passports or citizenship. She worked as a maid, a cook and a tailor. Her 12-year-old son had to leave school to work and contribute to the family income.

In March 2013, Saleh engaged Comar to file suit against the planners of the Iraq invasion; he would receive no money, nor seek compensation. In May, he went to Jordan to take her testimony. What I built in years was destroyed in one minute in front of my eyes, she told him. My work, my position, my parents, my whole family. Now I just want to live. As a mother. My children are like a flower. Sometimes I cant water them. I like to hold them, but I am too busy trying to survive.

***

These are dangerous times, Comar told me on 11 December last year. He had not planned to make his case about Trump, but his first hearing was taking place a month after the election and the implications for the abuse of power were grave. Comars case was about the rule of law international law, natural law and already Trump had not indicated a deep respect for procedures or facts. Facts are at the heart of the war on Iraq. Comar argues they were concocted to justify the invasion, and if any president were to falsify facts to fit his purposes, it would be Trump, who tweets demonstrably false information to his 25 million followers. If ever there were a time to clarify what the US can and cant do in terms of the invasion of sovereign nations, it would seem to be now.

For Comar, the best possible outcome at the next days hearing would be that the court sent the case down for an evidentiary hearing: a proper trial. Then he would have to prepare an actual case on the scale of the Nuremberg tribunal itself. But first he had to get past the Westfall Act.

The full name of the Westfall Act is the Federal Employees Liability Reform and Tort Compensation Act of 1988, and it was at the crux of Comars lawsuit, and of the governments defence. In essence, the act protects federal employees from litigation stemming from actions within their scope of duty. If a postal worker inadvertently delivers a bomb, he or she cannot be sued in a civil court, because they were operating within the boundaries of their employment.

The act has been applied when plaintiffs have sued Rumsfeld for his role in the use of torture. In every case, though, courts have agreed to the substitution of the US as the named defendant, instead of him. The implicit reasoning is that Rumsfeld, as secretary of defence, was tasked with defending the nation and, if necessary, planning and executing wars.

But this is exactly what the Nuremberg tribunal addressed, Comar told me. The Nazis made the same argument: that their generals were tasked with waging war, and they did so, that their soldiers were following orders. Thats the argument that Nuremberg dismantled.

Comar lives in almost spartan frugality in a studio apartment in downtown San Francisco. The view is of a wall of cement covered with moss and ferns; the bathroom is so small, a visitor can wash his hands from the foyer. On the shelf next to his bed is a book entitled Eating The Big Fish.

He does not have to live this way. After law school, Comar spent four years at a corporate law firm, working on intellectual property cases. He left to create his own firm, so he could split his time between social justice cases and those that would pay the bills. Twelve years after graduating, he still carries significant debt from his law school loans (as did Barack Obama when he took office).

When we spoke in December, he had a number of other pressing cases, but had been preparing for the hearing for nearly 18 months. As we talked, he continually looked out of the window, towards the wall of moss. When he smiled, his teeth gleamed in the flat light. He was earnest but quick to laugh, enjoyed discussing ideas and often said, Thats a good question! He looked and spoke like the tech entrepreneurs he typically represents: thoughtful, calm, inquisitive, with a bit of the why-not-give-it-a-shot? attitude essential to any startup.

The court could see there was a small army behind this, not just some crazy guy in San Francisco

Since his initial filing in 2013, Comars case had wound through the lower courts in what seemed a fruitless bureaucratic walkabout. But the intervening time had given him the opportunity to bolster his brief; by the time his appeal was filed with the Ninth Circuit, he had received unexpected support from eight prominent lawyers, each of whom added their own amicus briefs. Notable among them was Ramsey Clark, former attorney general of the US under Lyndon B Johnson, and Marjorie Cohn, former president of the National Lawyers Guild. Comar then heard from the foundation created by Benjamin Ferencz, the 97-year-old Nuremberg prosecutor he had written to: the Planethood Foundation filed an amicus brief.

Those briefs were a big deal, Comar said. The court could see there was a small army behind this. It wasnt just some crazy guy in San Francisco.

***

Monday 12 December is cold and blustery. The courtroom where the hearing will take place is located at Mission Street and 7th Street, less than 30 metres from where drugs are openly bought and consumed. With Comar is Curtis Doebbler, a law professor from the Geneva School of Diplomacy and International Relations; he flew in the night before. He is bearded, bespectacled and quiet. With his long dark trenchcoat and heavy-lidded eyes, he has the air of someone emerging from a foggy night bearing bad news. Comar intends to give him five minutes of his 15 to focus on the case from the perspective of international law.

We enter the courtroom at half past eight. All the mornings appellants are expected to arrive by nine and listen respectfully to the rest of the mornings cases. The courtroom is small, with about 30 seats for spectators and participants. The judges bench is high and triparted. Each of the three judges has a microphone, a small pitcher of water and a box of tissues.

Facing the judges is a podium where the attorneys present their arguments. It is bare but for two objects: a piece of paper printed with the judges names Hurwitz, Graber and Boulware and a device, the size of an alarm clock, with three rounded lights atop it: green, yellow, red. The clocks digital display is set at 10.00. This is the timer, which counts backward to 0, that will tell Inder Comar how much time he has left.

Its important to explain what a hearing in front of the Ninth Circuit means and doesnt mean. On the one hand, its an immensely powerful court whose judges are highly esteemed and rigorous in choosing what cases they hear. On the other hand, they do not try cases. Instead, they can uphold a lower court ruling or they can remand a case (send it back to a lower court for a real trial). This is what Comar is seeking: the right to an actual hearing on the legality of the war.

The last crucial fact of the Ninth Circuit is that it allots between 10 and 15 minutes per side per case. The plaintiff is given 10 minutes to explain why a lower courts ruling was wrong, and the defendant is given 10 minutes to explain why that previous ruling was just. In some instances, ostensibly when an issue is particularly important, cases are given 15 minutes.

The plaintiffs in the karaoke case, among other cases that morning, have been given 10 minutes. Comar and Salehs case has been given 15. Its at least a cursory nod to the relative importance of the issue at hand: the question of whether or not the US could invade sovereign nations under false pretences its precedent and implications.

Then again, the Popeyes chicken case has been given 15 minutes, too.

***

The days proceedings begin, and to anyone without a law degree, the cases before Comars do not make much sense. The lawyers are not presenting evidence, calling witnesses and cross-examining. Instead, each time a case is called, the following ensues. The lawyer steps up to the podium, sometimes turning to the audience for a last boost of courage from a colleague or loved one. Then the lawyer brings his or her papers to the podium and carefully arranges them. On these pages certainly on Comars is a written outline, tidy, deeply researched, of what the attorney will say. With the papers arranged, the lawyer indicates she or he is ready, the clerk starts the timer, and 10.00 quickly becomes 8.23 and 4.56 and then 2.00, at which point the green light gives way to yellow. It is nerve-racking for all. There is not enough time.

And none of this time belongs to the plaintiff. Without exception, within the first 90 seconds, the judges pounce. They dont want to hear speeches. Theyve read the briefs and researched the cases; they want to get into the meat of it. To the untrained ear, much of what goes on in the courtroom sounds like sophistry testing the strength of a legal argument, proposing and exploring hypotheticals, scrutinising language, semantics, technicalities.

The judges have very different styles. Andrew Hurwitz, on the left, does most of the talking. Before him is a tall cup of Equator coffee; during the first case, he finishes it. Thereafter, he seems to be buzzing. As he interrupts the attorneys, he turns repeatedly, reflexively, to the other judges, as if to say, Am I right? Am I right? He seems to be having fun, smiling and chuckling and always engaged. At one point he quotes Seinfeld, saying, No soup for you. During the karaoke case, he offers that he is an enthusiast. Im a consumer of karaoke, he says. Then he turns to the other two judges, as if to say, Am I right? Am I right?

Justice Susan Graber, in the middle, does not return Hurwitzs glances. She stares straight ahead for the better part of three hours. She is fair-skinned and her cheeks are rosy, but her affect is severe. Her hair is short, her glasses narrow; she stares each attorney down, unblinking, her mouth on the verge of being aghast.

On the right is Justice Richard Boulware, younger, African American and with a neatly trimmed goatee. He is sitting by designation, meaning he is not a permanent member of the Ninth Circuit. He smiles every so often but, like Graber, has a way of pursing his lips, or placing his hand on his chin or cheek, that indicates he is barely tolerating the nonsense before him.

As the hour approaches 11, Comar grows more nervous. When, at 11.03, the clerk announces, Sundus Saleh v George Bush, its hard not to feel anxious for him and his neat two-page outline.

The light goes green and Comar begins. He speaks for just over one minute before Graber interrupts. Lets cut to the chase, she says.

Sure, Comar says.

As I read the cases, she says, federal employees actions can be pretty darn wrongful and still be covered by the Westfall Act, still be part of their employment, and therefore subject to the immunity of the Westfall Act. Do you disagree with that as a general principle?

I dont disagree with that as a general principle, Comar says.

OK, Graber says, so whats different about this particular thing?

Here, of course, is the place where Comar had intended to say, What makes this particular thing different is that it was a war. A war based on false pretences and manufactured facts. A war that caused the deaths of at least half a million people. Half a million souls, and a nation destroyed. But in the heat of the moment, his nerves jumbled and his brain tied into legalistic knots, he answers, I think we need to get into the weeds of the DC law and look at the DC law cases where in those

Hurwitz interrupts him, and from there its all over the place, the three judges interrupting each other and Comar, but primarily its about the Westfall Act and whether or not Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz were acting within the scope of their employment. It is, for a few minutes, comically reductive. At one point Hurwitz asks whether or not, if any of the defendants were injured, they would receive workmans compensation. His point is that the president and his cabinet were government employees, and privy to both the benefits and the immunities of the job. The discussion fits the pattern of much of the day, where hypotheticals are entertained, mostly in the spirit of amusing brain teasers, like a crossword puzzle or a game of chess.

After nine minutes, Comar sits down and cedes the next five minutes to Doebbler. Like a relief pitcher getting a new crack at the opponents batting lineup, Doebbler starts from an entirely different place, and for the first time the consequences of the war are mentioned: This is not your customary tort, he says. This is an action that destroyed the lives of millions of people. Were not talking about whether or not a government official merely does something that might be within his terms of employment, within his office, that causes some damage

Let me stop you for a second, Hurwitz says. I want to understand the difference in the argument youre making. Your colleague says we should not find the Westfall Act to apply because they werent acting within the scope of their employment. Lets assume they were for a moment. Are you making an argument that even if they were, the Westfall Act doesnt apply?

Doebblers five minutes fly by, then its the governments turn. Their lawyer is about 30, lanky and loose. He doesnt seem the least nervous as he rebuts Comars argument, almost entirely on the basis of the Westfall Act. Given 15 minutes to defend the government against charges of an unjust war, he uses only 11.

***

When the Ninth Circuit ruled against Trumps travel ban on 9 February, much of the American media, and certainly the American left, celebrated the courts willingness to step up and check presidential power with blunt judicial common sense. Trumps White House, from its first day, had indicated a strong inclination toward unilateral action, and with a Republican Congress at his side, there was only the judicial branch left to limit his power. The Ninth Circuit did just that.

The next day, the Ninth Circuit finally ruled on Saleh v Bush, and here they did the opposite. They affirmed immunity for the executive branch, no matter the scale of the crime. Their opinion contains this chilling sentence: When the Westfall Act was passed, it was clear that this immunity covered even heinous acts.

The opinion is 25 pages long and addresses many of the points made in Comars complaint, but none of the substance. Again and again the court defers to the Westfall Act, and denies any other law supersedes it even the multiple treaties that prohibit aggression, including the UN charter. The opinion ties itself in knots to justify its deference, but offers one example of an offence that might not be covered by the law: A federal official would act out of personal motives if, for instance, he used the leverage of his office to benefit a spouses business, paying no heed to the resulting damage to the public welfare.

That was a reference to Trump, Comar says. The implication is that the execution of an unjust war is not prosecutable; but that if the current president were to use his office to help Melanias brands, for example, then the court might have something to say about it.

***

It is the day after the ruling, and Comar sits in his apartment, still processing. He received the opinion in the morning, but didnt have the energy to read it until the afternoon; he knew it was not in his favour and that the case was effectively dead. Saleh is now living in a third country as an asylum seeker, and dealing with health issues. She is exhausted and has no more room in her life for lawsuits.

Comar, too, is tired. The case has taken almost four years to get to the Ninth Circuit. Hes careful to express his gratitude that the court heard it in the first place. The good thing is they took it very seriously. They really addressed every argument.

He sighs, then enumerates the issues the court didnt address. They have the power to look at international law and recognise aggression as a jus cogens norm. In other words, the Ninth Circuit could have recognised illegal war-making as the supreme crime, as the judges had at Nuremberg, subject to a different level of scrutiny. But they didnt. They said, We could do that, but were not going to today. According to this ruling, the White House and Congress can commit genocide in the name of national security, and be protected.

With the case at an end, Comar plans to catch up on sleep and work. He is finishing an acquisition deal with a tech company. But he remains troubled by the implications of the ruling. Im really glad the court is challenging Trump in the immigration context. But, for whatever reason, when it comes to war and peace, in the US its just boxed away in another part of our brain. We just dont question it. We need to have a conversation about why were always at war. And why were always doing it unilaterally.

The fact that the Bush administration executed the war without personal consequences emboldens not just Trump, Comar says, but aggression elsewhere in the world. The Russians cited Iraq to justify [their invasion of] Crimea. They and others use Iraq as a precedent. I mean, the treaties and charters we set up establish a mechanism such that, if you want to engage in violence, you have to do it lawfully. You have to get a resolution from the UN and work with your partners. But that whole system is unravelling and that makes the world a much less safe place.

More:
'These are dangerous times': the man who sued George W Bush and the Iraq war - The Guardian

March 11, 2017 Sulaymaniyah, IraqThe joke did the rounds among Iraqi university students the day after President Trump ordered a travel ban in January on seven mainly Muslim nations including Iraq.

Hey, are you aware that we are banned from going to America? Congratulations, we are suddenly terrorists! recalls Mohammed Salh Qadir, a third-year international studies student at the American University of Iraq, Sulaimani (AUIS).

Iraq was removed from the revised executive order Mr. Trump signed this week, after legal challenges struck down the first version.

But the effect on students here has nevertheless been immense, from upending dreams of further study and travel in the United States, to raising questions about their perception of what America represents as an enlightened, diverse, and welcoming model. It has been felt across Iraq, where Iraqi and Kurdish security forces are integral to the US-led coalition now fighting to dislodge Islamic State (IS) militants from western Mosul, the jihadists last urban stronghold in the country.

The effect has been especially acute at AUIS, which was founded a decade ago in predominantly Kurdish northern Iraq, to impart American-style liberal arts values in the classroom. With its gleaming, newly built campus and lofty ambitions of producing Iraq's leaders of tomorrow, AUIS symbolizes the promise of what postwar building in Iraq can bring, in terms of US- and Western-style modernity.

It was a big shock, because so many people from here go to America to do their PhDs and masters degrees, and I was going to do that, says Mr. Qadir, whose minor subject is law.

What surprised him more, he says, is the irony that, even as Iraqi and Kurdish forces are fighting IS, the citizens they were defending are now [seen as connected] with terrorism, and are now on the same line as IS, while we are just fighting IS.

Were fighting; we say that America is our ally, says Qadir, who was volunteering this week at the Sulaimani Forum, an increasingly high-profile annual conference of regional politicians, officials, academics, and journalists hosted by AUIS.

I still think, and I still believe, and I still consider America to be the beacon of civilization, liberalism, freedom, and ideas that can change the world for the better, says Qadir, sharing, like other students, his personal views. But that [order] surprised me because we dont expect to be treated like that.

The blanket nature of the original order raised questions for Iraqis, as much as for citizens of the other nations affected.

You cannot label a nation a terrorist nation. There are good Americans, bad Americans. Good Iraqis, bad Iraqis. Good Kurds, bad Kurds, says Barham Salih, the founder of AUIS and a former prime minister of Iraqi Kurdistan and deputy prime minister of Iraq.

In fact, none of the terrorist incidents in the United States involved Iraqis, per se. It begs a lot of questions, says Mr. Salih, who spent years living in the US and UK.

People who come here to Kurdistan, we have to really exercise a lot of vigilance otherwise you dont have security, says Salih. But can you say, We will ban Arabs? No. So you have to look out for the bad guys; this is a matter for the Americans to decide.

The Trump decision transfixed Iraqis, as they heard stories of citizens some of whom had worked for US forces for years as interpreters and other jobs, during the post-2003 American military occupation of Iraq refused entry or denied visas.

All the city was watching TV, to know updates about the ban, to know if it was true or just a rumor, says Linda Karim Ghafor, a second-year international studies student at AUIS, and another Sulaimani Forum volunteer.

Her plans to get a masters degree in the US or Britain, focusing on gender inequality, childrens' rights, and the environment, are now less certain. The chaos of the initial travel ban, she says, affected her bid for a six-week summer visit to the US called the Iraqi Young Leader Exchange Program a course for which AUIS students are often given priority, because of the American links of the university. But they all must get visas, and go through an interview process, with the bar of success now raised much higher after the travel bans.

That makes questions in your mind: Is it because we are Kurds? Because we are Muslims? Because we are Shiites? Because we are Sunni? asks Ms. Ghafor, whose older sister is an AUIS graduate and who, like Qadir, is also pursuing a minor in law.

We have dreams, we have hope [to use] the education we get here to change our country, to travel [to the US] to have a lot of experiences, says Ghafor.

Because when you see diverse cultures different from yours you will take the good parts and try to do it in your country, she says. We want to change, and part of the change might come from our experience in Western countries. So if we are not allowed to see that, it will be a barrier to our education.

One concern is that the US ban might cause a knock-on affect, with other countries also shutting their doors. Still, as a student of international studies, Ghafor says she recognizes the US need to protect its own people.

If its for a short period of time, to solve the refugee problem, to stabilize the security of the country that is normal, though they are protecting their country in a way that we might not agree with, says Ghafor.

Rescinding the travel ban on Iraqis was a positive step for Qadir, and he intends to pursue further study in the US if he can. But reports of racist incidents including the February shooting of two Indian tech workers at a bar in Kansas, who were apparently mistaken for Iranians worry him.

The prospect of it, actually, I am afraid of, because anything can happen, says Qadir.

I am so pro-American. I support America and its efforts in bringing stability, and we are allies with them, he says. And suddenly if somebody doesnt like you because you look Middle Eastern, and Im suddenly perceived as someone who hates America, while Im not then it doesnt feel good.

Hopefully the American people will themselves understand that the reality is different, he says.

Continued here:
For students at an American university in Iraq, travel ban debate is keenly felt - Christian Science Monitor

John Wight has written for newspapers and websites across the world, including the Independent, Morning Star, Huffington Post, Counterpunch, London Progressive Journal, and Foreign Policy Journal. He is also a regular commentator on RT and BBC Radio. John is currently working on a book exploring the role of the West in the Arab Spring. You can follow him on Twitter @JohnWight1

There is nothing more despicable than those responsible for carnage and suffering on a grand scale not only escaping justice for doing so but seeking to ascribe something noble, honorable, and moral to that carnage and suffering. Step forward the British ruling class.

In advance of the anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq on March 20, 2003, the British government has unveiled a memorial to British servicemen killed in Iraq and Afghanistan between 1990 and 2015.

The 682 British soldiers killed while serving in Afghanistan and Iraq in this period were victims of conflicts fought not in the name of democracy, liberty, or humanitarianism, as the apologists for these wars and occupations continue to maintain, but imperialism. As we know, imperialism is not and has never been driven by idealism or justice but by economic and strategic advantage. It is why the lack of any commemoration of the countless thousands of Afghans and Iraqis also killed in these wars is such a crying injustice.

Let us not mince words: the British ruling elite is drowning in the blood, not only of its own young men, sent to do its bidding in this part of the world and elsewhere over many years, but even more grievously it is an elite with the blood of countless thousands of Afghan and Iraqi men, women, children on its hands too - people killed in conflicts that were, in the last analysis, unleashed in the squalid cause of might is right.

Compounding the injustice visited on the people of Afghanistan and Iraq, people whose lives have been upended as a direct consequence of Britains military presence in both countries is the lamentable fact that those responsible, such as former Prime Minister Tony Blair, have yet to face anything even approximating to justice. With this in mind, it is impossible to view this particular commemoration and memorial as anything other than an attempt to whitewash the magnitude of what the vast majority of Iraqis and Afghans consider to have been war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against them and their countries.

Furthermore, the parlous state of Afghan and Iraqi society today, the explosion of terrorism and barbarism of Salafi-jihadism i.e. ISIS, Nusra Front, and other such terror organizations is inextricably linked to Britains role and presence in both countries, along with that of its US ally.

On a wider point, the commemoration of young men, and also increasingly women, who lose their lives serving their country in war is crucial to shaping a national consensus over the righteousness of the cause in which said wars are fought. It is why, though the courage of those who die in service to their country is indisputable, the courage and morality of those who sent them to their deaths certainly is.

Britains presence in the Middle East, dating back to the end of the First World War in the aftermath of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, has been disastrous and calamitous for people living there. The carve up of the region in partnership with France under the terms of the infamous 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement involved the arbitrary imposition of borders with scant regard for historical, cultural, or regional specificities. Those artificial borders only entrenched sectarian and religious fissures that have plagued this part of the world ever since. They are fissures which, as we know only too well, have erupted in our time.

To repeat, this is not a criticism of the troops who died and whose deaths have been commemorated with this memorial. But to commemorate them while abstracting the innocent victims of the wars and occupations they were engaged in when they were killed is an insult to the truth and to justice. It constitutes the exploitation of their deaths on the part of a British ruling class, which despite the trumpets, ceremonial splendor, and rhetoric do not in truth care about the welfare of the troops who have fought to maintain their wealth and privileges. The sheer number of ex-British soldiers who are homeless, who lack healthcare or any meaningful care in the country they have served is a withering indictment in this regard.

In 1971 former US Secretary of State, John Kerry, went to Washington to testify in front of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on the Vietnam War, a war in which he served. He told the committee, The country doesnt know it yet, but it has created a monster, a monster in the form of men who have been taught to deal and to trade in violence, and who are given the chance to die for the biggest nothing in history; men who have returned with a sense of anger and a sense of betrayal which no one has yet grasped.

Powerful words indeed, yet John Kerry could count himself fortunate that he was given the platform and opportunity to give vent to the injustice suffered by the US soldiers who were sent in their thousands to die for that biggest nothing he railed against. What about the Vietnamese who perished, and in far greater number than those American soldiers? Who spoke for them?

The same scenario holds true when it comes to the British war memorial recently unveiled in London by the Queen. In the official program published to mark the event, Britains head of state praised the troops for their role in bringing peace and stability to Afghanistan and Iraq.

Whoever wrote those words on Her Majestys behalf did her credibility no favors. On the contrary, only when those responsible for sowing carnage, chaos, and instability on a monumental scale in the Middle East find the integrity to acknowledge their responsibility in doing so will we know that lessons have been learned.

Until that day comes, justice will continue to be sacrificed on the altar of propaganda.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

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British Iraq and Afghanistan war memorial sacrifices justice for propaganda - RT

Instead of directly deploying thousands of additional ground troops into Iraq or Syria, the sort of precipitous escalation that might get Congress voting on the war, the Trump Administration appears to have decided that the solution is to send thousands of US ground troops to Kuwait, and let the commanders in Iraq and Syria just take what they want.

Early reports of this strategy emerged Wednesday, when officials said there were considerations of sending around 1,000 troops into Kuwait for this operation. Just two days later, the figure was up to at least 2,500, with signs that it is continuing to grow all the time.

While President Obama was micromanaging the escalations, particularly in Iraq, where every couple of weeks another hundred or two troops would be sent, the Trump Administration appears to be throwing the troops into a big pile and leaving the deployments up to the commanders.

This adds credence to the sense that President Trump is going to be a bit more hands-off on his escalations, giving the military commanders additional leeway on actions, and even on troop levels, which is likely to raise further questions about what those commanders intend to do in the war, if they no longer have to get permission first.

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US Deploying Thousands More Ground Troops to Kuwait to Fight in Iraq, Syria - Antiwar.com

UNITED NATIONS Iraqi U.N. Ambassador Mohamed Ali Alhakim said on Friday there was "no evidence" that Islamic State had used chemical weapons in Mosul, where the militants are fighting off an offensive by U.S.-backed Iraqi forces.

Alhakim said he spoke with officials in Baghdad at midday on Friday and "there was really no evidence that Daesh has used this chemical weapon." Daesh is another name for Islamic State.

The United Nations said last Saturday that 12 people, including women and children, had been treated for possible exposure to chemical weapons agents in Mosul since March 1.

The United Nations Security Council was briefed behind closed doors on the situation in Mosul on Friday by U.N. aid chief Stephen O'Brien and U.N. High Representative for Disarmament Affairs Kim Won-soo.

British U.N. Ambassador Matthew Rycroft, president of the council for March, said the 15-member body believed that Iraq's investigation into possible chemical weapons attacks was ongoing.

"We expressed concern over reports of possible use of chemical weapons by Daesh and we look forward to the results of Iraq's investigation into those allegations," Rycroft told reporters after the briefing.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Sandra Maler)

JERUSALEM U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday invited Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to the White House, in a first phone call between the two leaders since Trump took office.

ROTTERDAM/VIENNA Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu will not be allowed to campaign for votes among expat Turks during a visit to Rotterdam on Saturday, the mayor of the Dutch port said, joining a growing list of European cities that have blocked such rallies.

UNITED NATIONS Iraq is assessing what help it might need to collect and preserve evidence of Islamic State crimes, but has not yet decided whether it needs United Nations assistance, the country's U.N. Ambassador, Mohamed Ali Alhakim, said on Friday.

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Iraq says 'no evidence' of chemical weapons attacks in Mosul - Reuters