It is disturbing to hear on the news this morning that the Cabinet have agreed in principle to join the US-led coalition for a military attack on Syria and decided Cabinet approval is all that’s necessary.
In other words, parliamentary democracy will be by-passed in a matter with potentially fatal consequences for millions. Blair in 2003 at least was bright enough to get gullible MPs from across the House to give him political cover for his illegal game.
I have just come across the following remarks by an eminent US law expert, Francis Boyle, professor of international law at the University of Illinois, that show Trump to be on very shaky ground and at risk of impeachment.
Boyle writes:
When Obama was in a similar position in 2013, his advisor Ben Rhodes has since commented that they turned back largely because they were afraid of impeachment. That fear is well founded. While the prospect of impeaching Trump is thrown around frequently for partisan purposes, on this issue, the constitution is clear: Initiating a war or any such attack without authorization is clearly impeachable.
Last year, at the National Press Club, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., claimed the authority to target the Syrian government stemmed from the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force. Gen. Dunford was totally incorrect. The AUMF passed after 9/11 has indeed been used to justify the bombing campaign purporting to target ISIS, but it cannot possibly be used to justify targeting the Syrian government.
Excuses of ‘humanitarian intervention’ have no basis in international law and in these circumstances are transparently hollow. Israel apparently just attacked Syria (illegal) from Lebanese airspace (also illegal). Israel itself just openly admitted that it is killing Palestinian civilian protesters — part of a decades-long brazenly illegal policy. The U.S. representative to the UN, Nikki Haley, prevented even an inquiry by the UN into the matter. There’s no evidence of any humanitarian concern here, simply a search for pretexts to pursue geopolitical goals which may well include carving up Syria.
As upholders (one supposes) of the rule of law, including international law, Theresa May and her Cabinet colleagues surely won’t wish to implicate themselves – or the nation – in any such criminal conduct. You might criticise Boyle for his anti-US/Israel stance just as many people are sickened by the Conservative Party’s undying devotion to the Israel project, but none of that extinguishes the legal point. Exactly what advice has our Conservative Government received, please, to say that joining this action against Syria is lawful or even sensible?
Also what rock-solid evidence is there that the Douma gas attack actually took place and, if so, that the Syrian government was responsible?
I imagine most Government MPs have already asked these questions and received answers, but the British public are still waiting, unconsulted, while we teeter on the brink…..
Kind regards etc,
Stuart Littlewood