Air strikes against Iraq are wrong

As I write, armed forces of the United States of America are bombing rebel positions in Iraq.  There have also been drops of supplies to refugees fleeing the rebels.

While this is being portrayed in the press as a humanitarian effort, I am nevertheless opposed to the bombing.  I have no doubt that terrible atrocities are being carried out in Iraq, but I am aware also that many atrocities have been committed over the years by Britain's armed forces, and yet we never prosecute our war criminals.  Likewise, many atrocities have been committed over the years by third world dictatorships which were and still are propped up by British taxpayers' money, and yet we do not prosecute the government ministers or civil servants who make these payments.

It is only a few years ago that an African torturer called Phillip Machemedze won the legal right to live indefinitely in this country.  A handful of MPs and journalists bleated about the injustice of letting Britain be a safe haven for evil men like him, but as usual it was just for show. Quite simply, if you vote in elections for political parties which support Britain remaining in the Council of Europe, then don't pretend you care about how Britain is run.

The ongoing carnage in Iraq is the result of western imperialism.  So too are the bombing of Gaza by Israel and the civil war in the Ukraine.  The Americans and the British invaded Iraq and deposed Saddam Hussein, thereby destabilising the entire country.  The Americans and the British allowed a group of Jewish terrorists to establish the nation of Israel, thereby condemning their Arab neighbours to an almost unrelenting campaign of terror.  The evil European Union arranged for President Yanukovych to be removed from power illegally, thereby destabilising Ukraine.

I wonder if the people who support air strikes on Iraq can offer any serious arguments as to why these air strikes could not possibly make the situation worse.  I am sure they will protest that they have no intention of making things worse, but the record of achievement of western intervention does not make encouraging reading.

I hope that as many refugees as possible will escape the rebels, and I accept that it may be necessary for some of them to seek asylum in adjacent countries.  My opposition to western military intervention remains unflinching however.  Rather than drop more bombs, the Americans should prosecute and hang their war criminals.

Related previous posts include:
A dilemma for the war pigs
MH17 and Gaza: western imperialism
Cameron visits Israel
The west should stay out of Ukraine