SECRET AND PERSONAL
The Rewards from Your Visit to Crawford Will Be Few. The risks are high, both for you and for the government.
Doubter of British policy but presenter of it nonetheless, British Minister Jack Straw here possesses the well known capacity for understatement, noted in the British for time immemorial. Understatement is the ability to say little and mean much, to allow another to take from one’s few words great and multiple truths. Understatement is the essence of the British soul. Such a land without a written constitution, a country whose laws are based on near holy precedent, knows words mean much, not little. The lines that commit to war could be the rope around one’s own neck.
Great Britain, which has no written constitution, a land ruled by near holy precedent, knows laws are only so good as the men and women who defend the rule of law. The leaks which have come out recently in regard to Downing Street, the further leaks which are sure to come, reveal the strong yearning for right conduct and right respect for the rule of law. A great disquiet now haunts the seeming silent, stiff lipped British political soul. That disquiet will not stay silent much longer. An honest British soul has whispered of his disquiet. That quiet rage will now be heard here across the Atlantic.
If 11 September had not happened, it is doubtful that the US would now be considering military action against Iraq. In addition there has been no credible evidence linking UBL and Al Quaida.
The conscience of British common law is found in its respect for the jury, an idea that came to them ironically with their Viking plunderers. One prosecutor’s desire to too quick convict is tempered by the slow wisdom of a collective twelve souls of a jury. Convince the many of your one belief and all will be more right with the world. Convict too quick without the many’s consent and mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, the blood dimmed tide that might drown us all. The ironic, poetic resides in the British soul, as the British are defenders of freedom who yet occupy their neighbor Ireland. A disquiet haunts the British soul, for what it says and what it does are not the same.
A nation of unwritten laws that commits to writs of war unwarranted does so at its peril. The British soul is tried by its silent continuing war on the Irish always, the British soul is tried anew in the invasion and occupation of Iraq. Such trials are testament to the greatness of the spirit there. Great men have a conscience of what they do. Lesser men have none. And only the lesser have no doubt. Conscience inheres in the British soul as breath blows in the body. Conscience is the breath of truth in the acrid lying air. A disquiet haunts the British soul. A man of conscience would accuse himself. And he would reveal his nation for what it has done wrong in the hope that it might be made right.
A legal justification but far from sufficient precondition for military action. We have also to answer the big question—what will this action achieve?
A disquiet haunts the British soul. If all is done by the rule of law and Britain does its part by it best lights, then the world would be the better for it. But one conscience in Britain is not so sure that nation has done its best and so the world is the worse for it. That secret and personal anonymous truth now leaks documents. This blood dimmed world may yet see the flood of truth.
Unlike the government of the Crawford American cousin Bush, the British government of Blair has concerns about the crime of aggression embodied in the International Criminal Court. Great Britain has signed the treaty recognizing the jurisdiction of the court, while the United States has not. In attacking the treaty and the Bush administration has attacked the United Nations, Bush apologists have claimed no international body may rule on United States actions rightly taken. Even a man of conscience fears if he can endure the trial of his soul. Only a fool forgets the judgment of Nuremburg.
The chief British concern in Cabinet discussions is whether the war in Iraq might be an illegal war of aggession. How sadly this contrasts with the American concern of getting in a quicksand quagmire as quickly as possible without no swimming lesson available or a way to get out. The irony of conscience is in admitting its power, one is bound and freed by conscience’s tethers. If one violates conscience, one is tied up for ever. If one lives by conscience, one is tied to the rest of the right world always.
Conscience recognizes consequence. What we do happens not in some fantasy dream world. When the dogs of war come off the leashes, who gets bitten is not known but that some will take a chew is certain. The British would not follow the Americans lightly, for in committing to taking another’s lead the British know they are than complicit in their leader’s acts. Beyond the possible crime of a war of aggression, the British would be culpable for all consequent crimes that might follow in that war. We have all seen the photos of the torturous horrors. We have little seen the photos of the dead. Legal or not, war is ever an obscenity, yet promoted with the whitest words. Some conscience in Great Britain seeks to clean his nation’s soul. The secret and personal trial of the soul continues.
JACK STRAW TO TONY BLAIR 25 MARCH 2002
FROM: LEFT OF CENTRIST
Secret and Personal: from Jack Straw to Tony Blair (4 pages)
CONCERNS ABOUT THESE DOCUMENTS HAVE BEEN EXPRESSED
As Much in What They Say, but Whether They Are Real. You may follow that thread at Daily Dissention.
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The Leak that Changed Minds on the Iraq War
Posted by: Sidra Vitale | June 13, 2005 at 08:15 AM