As the number of civilian deaths in Iraq continues to grow steadily, so do the demands for the prosecution of those who led the United States and Britain to war: President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair. To those must be added Jose Maria Aznar, Spain's former prime minister, although Spain had much less direct involvement in the war.
Recent dissemination of 200 additional photographs showing the torture of prisoners by U.S. military personnel in Iraq (and in Afghanistan) provides an opportunity to conduct such trials. If the tenets of the Nuremberg principles and the Geneva Conventions were applied, both Bush and Blair would most likely be convicted for their responsibility in this terrible war.
The Nuremberg principles were established after World War II to prosecute Nazi crimes. The same principles should apply to determine the criminal responsibility of those who led the Iraqi war, which resulted in the loss of hundreds of thousands lives — many of them children — and the devastation of that country's infrastructure.
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