Iraq: 20 years later and Tony Blair is still a war criminal
We are 20 years on from the invasion of Iraq, but the devastating impacts are still being felt, say the Scottish Greens.
Branding it "one of the most immoral and disastrous foreign policy decisions" taken by a UK Prime Minister in modern history, the party has accused Tony Blair of "Amassing a fortune swanning around TV studios and picking up paycheques from some of the world's worst human rights abusers when he should instead be sitting in the Hague on trial for war crimes."
The Scottish Greens external affairs spokesperson, Ross Greer MSP said:
"We may be 20 years on from one of the most immoral and disastrous foreign policy decisions ever taken by a UK Prime Minister, but the devastating effects are still being felt in Iraq and across the region.
"Hundreds of thousands of innocent people have died as a result of that illegal and outrageous invasion by British and American forces.
"Whether it was the 'shock and awe' bombing of Baghdad or the vicious siege of Falluja, those responsible showed a total disregard for the rights and the lives of Iraqis, and still continue to."It is a grotesque injustice that the architects of this brutal invasion have yet to be held accountable.
"George Bush may have retired to his ranch and gone into hiding, but Blair is busy amassing a fortune swanning around TV studios and picking up paycheques from some of the world's worst human rights abusers when he should instead be sitting in the Hague on trial for war crimes.
"What message does it send about the UK's respect for human rights or international law when a Prime Minister can lie on that scale, inflict such awful atrocities and still end up with a knighthood?
"The International Criminal Court have rightly issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin, but why are we here two decades on without either Bush or Blair being similarly held to account for their heinous crimes.
"I hope that the survivors of this awful war live to see the justice that they and so many others deserve."