I`M WITH DES..

Archbishop and Nobel Prize winner Desmond Tutu`s call for Blair and Bush to be called before the International Criminal Court at The Hague is intriguing.   The ICC (not to be confused with the International Cricket Council) is chiefly concerned with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes and it is in regard to the latter that Tutu makes his claim, citing the alleged illegality of the Iraq War which gave rise to untold thousands of deaths.

At first glance, his call sounds straightforward enough.   But why limit it to just Blair and Bush, when others in both the US and UK administrations would seem to have been as much involved in the dubious decision making and the liberal interpretation of the law?   Trouble is, the ICC isn`t recognised by the United States, so Bush`s appearance before it is immediately reduced to the realms of wishful thinking.

As for Blair, well we`ve had the whitewashing Hutton and Butler Inquiries and the Chilcot Inquiry is now in cold storage whilst `negotiations` continue about the content of its final report.   Blair himself has, predictably, rubbished Tutu`s call with the kind of dismissive arrogance that we`ve come to expect and, since Blair seems to inhabit a stratospheric world which we mere mortals find difficult to comprehend, it seems unlikely in the extreme that he will also set foot in The Hague.

However, despite all of that, I`m with Des.   For there`s a principle here which suggests that those responsible for events such as Iraq need to be held properly to account for their decisions.   It`s clear that the series of Inquiries we`ve had so far have proven ineffective, partial and successful only in coming up with the answers they were set up to provide.   The problem with Tutu`s statement is that it suggets he might be assuming guilt, always a dangerous assumption.   However, he is right in the sense that there seems to be a case to answer and that a more independent, detached view needs to be taken; and although I know the appearance of the Chuckle Brothers before the ICC ain`t gonna happen, it doesn`t change the conviction that something should.