YABBI

Excuse me for possibly speaking out of turn, but can someone, anyone, honestly tell me what the point of YABII (Yet Another Bloody Iraq Inquiry) actually is? We've already had a number of them each with exactly the same outcome i.e. the anti-war lobby screams its a whitewash and will do so until they get the answer they are so damn sure is the truth. Meanwhile, during a time when the deficit of the country is running rampant, we throw even more pointless millions into another investigation, and for what?

It was an "illegal war!" you'll hear them say, yet not once have I ever seen any of them actually point to a specific law that was broken. Yes, OK, I know that they'll say it was about a breach of what they call "international law", but it doesn't take a genius to realise that such a thing is a rather woolly concept and not so much "law" in the sense of rules with sovereign oversight, but rather just agreements or norms that are not cast in stone.

I've said ti before, and I'll say it over and over again on the subject of "international law". That is that "law" can only exist where there is a common sovereign power. There is no common international sovereign in the world. That is a Fact. The United Nations does not have any conferred power from it members that allow it to compel its members to do anything. As such, there is no such thing as "international law" in the commonly held understanding of law.

People may not have agreed with the Iraq war, but to claim it was an illegal act by either the US, the UK, or the others willing members of the coalition is complete bollocks. Having YABII to establish how the decision was taken in Britain is rather pointless too because is well known already. That is why you're going to hear lots of nuanced arguments about timings. You;re going to hear people making tenuous leaps of logic that say "if Bush had made a decision, and Blair knew, then Blair had made a decision too even when he might have said he hadn't".

The argument will totally preclude any sort of rational analysis that says, if war is an option on the table, then you have to prepare for it even if you're not going to go ahead. Thus it was that Tommy Franks was doing just that for the White House and his British counterparts were doing the same for Downing Street.

Let's be under no illusion now. The clamour for YABII is more about a desire for the far Left screaming of "argghh Bush and Blair are war criminals!" than anything else. A total waste of taxpayers money at a time when the taxpayer coould do with spending it much more wisely.