Last week, Ken Livinstone, defending the rule of law, said that the manner of the killing of Bin Laden “undermines any commitment to democracy and trial by jury and makes Obama look like some sort of mobster.” For this, he was denounced by “moderate” Labour bloggers — “the madness of Ken’s attack on Obama” and “foolish Ken strikes again.” And yet today, Boris Johnson says pretty much the same thing: Continue reading
Tagged with Barack Obama
Bin Laden, extra judicial killing – and the shining example that was Nuremburg
In the days of the Wild West, the posters used to read ‘Wanted! Dead or Alive’. Now in the White House we must presume they read, ‘Wanted! Dead, Not Alive!’ This is the image that President Obama and his administration have conveyed through the bizarre but officially sanctioned photograph showing them watching the military operation to kill Osama Bin Laden. Continue reading
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Libyan mission creep: Labour should back international law, not NATO
The three NATO leaders have now made clear their objective in Libya — and it is regime change and not the more limited objectives set by the UN. Regime change is not a legitimate objective for NATO’s leaders to determine. It is an entirely legitimate aspiration for the Libyan people. It could become a legitimate objective of an international force if it were explicitly approved by the UN, perhaps based on a conclusion of the investigations of the International Criminal Court into crimes committed against civilians in Libya, but such approval is unlikely to be forthcoming anytime soon.
It is absolutely wrong, therefore, for NATO’s leaders to determine that regime change is a pre-condition for peace and the cessation of NATO’s attacks, and Labour should say so. It is helpful that Douglas Alexander, Labour’s Shadow Foreign Secretary, has begun to distance Labour from today’s joint article by the NATO leaders, but he and Ed Miliband must go much further. Continue reading
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Time to turn the screws on Israel for the sake of its own survival
Watching a succession of Western leaders, including Chancellor Merkel of German and Prime Minister Cameron of Britain speaking at the annual Munich Security Conference on Saturday, I was struck by the huge importance they attached to the fast moving events in Egypt, and the wider Arab World. It was almost as though the enormity of what is unfolding – Egypt is hugely strategic and pivotal – was obliging these leaders to realise for the first time the possible knock on effects in the region. Continue reading
