Nov 15, 2015

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: