Labour shadow minister says willing to trash international law in service of Empire
Lord Falconer, unelected Shadow Minister for Justice and former member of Tony Blair’s government
Lord Falconer, Labour Shadow Justice Minister, who served under Tony Blair and is therefore no stranger to war crimes, has, according to the Guardian, said Labour may be willing to support a “wider international action” in Syria, without UN approval.
“…Falconer confirmed this explicitly on Sunday, saying that Labour could support international action without formal UN approval, potentially including Nato, whose members regard an attack on one member as an attack on all under article 5.
“(IS) can only be defeated by the international community as a whole, if possible through a UN sponsored process, but if not that, then nations come together,” he told the BBC.
He added: “I think Nato will be a part of it. It is much too early to say whether it is appropriate or possible to evoke article 5, but Nato will be part of the group of nations that have got to come together to look at it….”
Significant because…
1. This proposed non-UN mandated “wider international action” would be illegal. We know this appears not to matter any more in the exalted circles in which Lord Falconer moves, but it probably should. Because international law is our only real guarantor of peace and stability. Once that is disregarded, and once it becomes acceptable for brute force to trump morality no one is safe and the world is given over to gangsters. The fact we in the west think our gangsters are the good guys makes no difference. Everyone always think they are the good guys. That’s why the law in necessary.
2. He uses the dread phrase “Article 5”. Article 5 of the NATO treaty is the one that describes an attack on one member state as an attack on all, and requires a joint response to such actions. In other words the prospect is being dangled of the ISIS attack on France being used as a reason to invoke Article 5 and justify a full-scale NATO air or ground attack in Syria.
This is what Falconer’s allusive words are flirting with. A NATO attack on Syria, and therefore, at only slight remove, on Syria’s supporter, Russia.
Maybe Lord Falconer is just mouthing platitudes for the press and his party has no intention of supporting such lunatic antics. Or maybe he’s just another useful idiot, like so many Empire appointees in Europe now seem to be. Let’s hope it’s the former.
If any Labour party members or members of the general public wants to let Lord Falconer know what they think of such an idea, he can be emailed at:
[email protected].
But first check out the House of Lords’ handy crib sheet on “how to address a Lord”.
It’s apparently important we get the degree of subservience just right.
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Thanks. I like the “In the know” headline banner. Really like it. Also, the Leyte Tide Embankment project is new to me, and welcomed. Tacloban has been totally rejuvenated since Yolanda, and there are a lot of hotels and other commercial establishments rising. But they are all vulnerable. The Tacloban airport terminal was rebuilt and expanded after having been pretty well destroyed by the storm surge. Low sea walls are still a problem, I think, although they have been re-built.
I’m skeptical about the bridge-building and hope there is some effort made to analytically measure the traffic and economic benefits. Otherwise, the program might be labeled “The most massive effort of building bridges to nowhere on the planet.”
Reblogged this on Siem Reap Mirror.
Never thought I’d say thank god for Hilary Benn, but he is the actual shadow F-Sec and he does seem to be a clearer head: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/hilary-benn-shadow-foreign-secretary-says-labour-wont-back-air-strikes-on-syria-a6734651.html.
Falconer clearly has a few skeletons in his closet that GCHQ can rattle at him.
The last I heard, Benn was considering another failed state, I’m glad he’s had a change of heart but I trust old C3PO about as far as I could throw him
Maybe he read the MS piece;
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-2c78-How-many-more-failed-states#.Vkjja1_fWnM
When I said “thank god”, I’m not entirely sure I was going so far as to assume an ongoing change of heart! Just that, with Charlie Falconer doing the usual “I’m Labour, so I must represent the contrary view to Jeremy Corbyn on all premier BBC politics shows”, at least the ACTUAL F-Sec was saying something vaguely sane. How sad, that this is something worth remarking on.
Shadow F-Sec, sorry.
We have have his Disciple in Washington (WATCH): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC7Fz0d9H8M
Lord Falconer advocating more murder and mayhem, war crimes and further crimes against humanity. Why have the UN if we are going to dispense with the Internationally agreed Laws, without which, we are just another “rogue” state and a valid target for further terrorist atrocities. If we do have terrorist bombings in the UK I do hope they target the likes of this Blairite element and the Tory toffs rather than innocent civilians. Unfortunately, that’s not the way it works, he knows he is not likely to be one of the dead, we the sheeple will carry that burden. Already ISIS is making more demands for aid, funds and weapons/artillery from Turkey and Saudi because their numbers and positions are being clobbered by the united efforts of Russia, the Syrian Army,Hezbollah, Iraq and Iran. If we were going to do anything it should be as appointed by the UN rather than another “illegal war” as Kofi Anan described our attack against the Iraqi people.
If the UK wants to bomb Syria, it can do so legally. Pass its targets to the only foreign airforce legally allowed to be there, the Russians, who will do the bombing for them.
The Russians can then show drone footage that the targets have been destroyed.