US hawk admits invasion was illegal

War critics astonished as US hawk admits invasion was illegal:
"War critics astonished as US hawk admits invasion was illegal

Oliver Burkeman and Julian Borger in Washington
Thursday November 20, 2003
The Guardian

International lawyers and anti-war campaigners reacted with astonishment yesterday after the influential Pentagon hawk Richard Perle conceded that the invasion of Iraq had been illegal.

In a startling break with the official White House and Downing Street lines, Mr Perle told an audience in London: 'I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing.'"

Right at the beginning of the invasion there was much discussion as to the rights and wrongs of it and legal experts didn't agree it was internationally right and the resolution 1441 of the UN which allowed "serious consequences" was used to justify the invasion to some extent but "serious consequences" are not necessarily military in their substance and it was never further discussed in the UN.It was deemed morally wrong to leave Saddam Hussein in charge of Iraq. Had the world been allowed to continue to discuss this, because a lot of expert opinion was being aired, and then everything became muddled, we may well have resolved this better as a planet. In certain respects we are coming to consensus on certain aspects of it and we have had heated , passionate and informed debate ,and there is nothing wrong with that, except while we are trying to resolve a real challenge and come to grips with a situation which has so many political facets and ramifications, too many people are dying. Too many. The discussions and debates are good , valid and worthwhile to us as a planet, but the damage and destruction is too high a price to pay for us to grow up as a world.