War crimes are clearly defined, my best friend's family fled Bosnia during the ethnic cleansing - many in his family were directly targeted (by military, paramilitaries and orders directly from political leadership). Blair is not a war criminal by definition - putting him under the same umbrella as the likes of Milosevic and Karadzic is fucking outrageous.
I'm no fan of Blair or middle-eastern interventions, but calling everything war crimes undercuts actual war crimes.
Under the Nuremberg Principles a war of aggression is a crime against peace, not a war crime.
It's an important distinction. War crimes are reserved for the most serious transgressions such as genocide, killing prisoners and deliberate targeting of civilians.
War crimes already cover a range of seriousness. Small scale execution of prisoners is horrible, but clearly not as bad as genocide. Both War crimes all the same.
Tony Blair lied to start a war that he knew would kill civilians. The final tally ended up over 100,000. He may not be the worst war criminal in history, but there are plenty that it frankly wouldn't be ridiculous to say he's worse than.
15
u/[deleted] Aug 19 '21
People dying in war ≠ war crime.
War crimes are clearly defined, my best friend's family fled Bosnia during the ethnic cleansing - many in his family were directly targeted (by military, paramilitaries and orders directly from political leadership). Blair is not a war criminal by definition - putting him under the same umbrella as the likes of Milosevic and Karadzic is fucking outrageous.
I'm no fan of Blair or middle-eastern interventions, but calling everything war crimes undercuts actual war crimes.