Evidence? Evidence? We Don't Need No Stinking Evidence!

In reading Conyers Blog this evening I was directed to an article from the UK Guardian Newspaper Blair-Bush deal before Iraq war revealed in secret memo . This article adds new revelations about the run-up to the current Iraq War.

"Tony Blair told President George Bush that he was 'solidly' behind US plans to invade Iraq before he sought advice about the invasion's legality and despite the absence of a second UN resolution, according to a new account of the build-up to the war published today.

A memo of a two-hour meeting between the two leaders at the White House on January 31 2003 - nearly two months before the invasion - reveals that Mr Bush made it clear the US intended to invade whether or not there was a second UN resolution and even if UN inspectors found no evidence of a banned Iraqi weapons programme."

The new report alluded to in this article is from the most recent edition of Lawless World by University College Law London Professor of International Law Phillipe Sands. This holistic, global analysis of American and British roles in the world from 1865 to the present day is uniquely illuminating.

" Altercation Book Club: Lawless World by Philip Sands, reviewed by Eric Rauchway.

The recent history of the world divides into roughly four phases.

1. 1865-1914: When the British Ran Things All Right, Considering;
2. 1914-1945: When the Americans Made a Bad Mess Worse;
3. 1945-1968: When the Americans Ran Things All Right, Considering, and
4. 1968-present: When It Sure Looks Like the Americans are Making Another Big Mess But It's Still a Little Too Soon To Tell. ...

... Philippe Sands tells the story of phases 3 and 4, and worries we may be in for a mess like phase 2 owing to the repeated efforts of the US, aided often by the UK, to pick apart a system Americans and British once worked so hard to create. ...

In the post-1918 period the Americans pursued a set of policies, including immigration restriction, trade protectionism, and inflexibility as an international lender, that efficiently killed whatever optimism had survived the Great War, and the world slid into crisis. Mindful of this cautionary example, the Americans and British worked together in 1944-1945 to create orderly and confidence-inspiring norms and institutions -- the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, trade agreements, conventions on human rights, and other legal protections. ...

Ever since the postwar system began to collapse in the early 1960s the United States has had to reconcile its diminishing authority in the world economy with its tremendous military power. And, Sands argues, it has done so with increasing ill-grace over the decades. Whenever a conflict has arisen between the carefully built structure of international rules and America's perceived interests at the moment, the country has chosen its perceived interest, eroding by steps the system it helped build."

While researching this book, George Orwell's name popped into my head. Isn't it interesting that according to the BBC , Orwell began 1984 during the 2nd phase noted above?

"He began writing 1984 after resigning from the BBC World Service in September 1943 where he had been employed writing and producing news for India. ... It was his increasing frustration with the Ministry of Information, which censored the news during World War II, which led to his resignation and subsequently became the central theme of 1984."

Meanwhile, our founding fathers are turning over in their graves. "I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." - Thomas Jefferson

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