Not so very different after all

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They told us that it would be so different. After the chaos and confusion of a series of Tory PMs who all seemed to think, to a greater or lesser degree, that compliance with the law was optional (especially in the case of Johnson) the new Labour PM was a completely different animal. A man with a long and honourable background as a human rights lawyer, a man for whom the rule of law was part of the very essence of his being. The promise didn’t age well.

When it came to denying power, water and food to the people of Gaza, his initial response was that Israel had a right to self-defence, and he swatted away any suggestions that that right did not extend to mass killings of non-combatants, including children. Perhaps it stems from that other attribute of an experienced lawyer, obliged by the rules of his profession to take on either side in any case, and find the way of prosecuting or defending which gives his client the best chance of winning. From that perspective, whether or not what Israel is doing in Gaza amounts to genocide or not is a matter of opinion which can only be settled by a court case; whether bombing of hospitals was deliberate or not (and therefore whether it amounts to a war crime) is just an allegation until proven at a trial which is unlikely to happen any time soon. For a good lawyer, there is almost always some wiggle room in law, even if not in morality.

When we come to the bombing of nuclear installations in Iran, however, it’s difficult to see how any reputable lawyer could find a way to argue the case in favour of Trump and the US. The prohibition on attacking nuclear installations is there, in clear terms, and the miscreants have actively boasted that the targeting was entirely deliberate. There simply is no wiggle room; it’s a war crime, pure and simple. The government’s attempt to avoid answering the question as to whether they believe it to be a criminal act or not is shameful. The statements by Sir Warmonger after the event, claiming that the outcome (preventing Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, even though there was no real evidence that they were trying to do so) is a good thing is not so much a legal argument as an ‘end-justifies-the-means’ argument.

Even if it were true that preventing one insane man from joining the club of other insane men who already possess such weapons is such a good outcome that it justifies a blatant breach of international law, we don’t know – and won’t for some time to come – what the real outcome of Trump’s decision is. The destruction of the bombed facilities, even if it’s as complete as is being claimed (and the history of previous military adventures suggests that might turn out to be a dubious claim at best) is only one, short-term outcome. Nobody knows what comes next, but the idea that a single military attack can be considered and judged in isolation from both what went before and what will come after is just another form of madness.

It seems that even a long career upholding the rule of law doesn’t prevent a lawyer who transitions into politics abandoning that commitment in pursuit of the simplistic goal of not upsetting His Orangeness. The rule of law turns out to be considered optional after all.