The New Statesman last week published a letter from the Defence Secretary, George Robertson, who took exception to my description of his government’s recent actions in Iraq as murder.
The government sent 14 pilots to join the Americans in a wholly illegal adventure over Iraq, which resulted in the deaths of at least 82 innocent people. In international law, that is a crime. Craven military euphemisms, such as “surgical strikes” and “collateral damage” are understandably preferred in government and media circles in this country. That does not make it any less of a crime. Nor does Saddam Hussein’s reputation make it any less of a crime.
Should Robertson doubt this, he might visit the grieving family of 25-year-old Fadila Amier. A bomb exploded near her home in Baghdad. A journalist described how she “lay on the ground clutching her stomach, blood pouring from abdomen and thighs”. She was pregnant. She was peppered with shrapnel. Her sister said, “We got Fadila to the nearest hospital, but they had no facilities so they could not operate on her. All they could do was put her on a drip.”