Iraq: Pre-War Planning

[selil]

I'd be interested in the legal argument for the proposition (of legal responsibility), expressed in standard format.

1. Facts relevant to the question.

2. Legal precedents which are applicable.

3. Conclusion, including the time period claimed for which an invading power (as opposed to a longer-term occupying power or SOFA power) is responsible for "wellbeing".

I do not have such a brief lurking in the background; but have thought about it. In short, I am open to be educated.

I don't know the whole story but maybe LawVol or one of his buddies can weigh in. I know that "Law of war" has been a big issue and all that means.

[jmm99]

My post just above relates to my post of longer back re: "invade and leave"

I remember a CNN interview with John Bolton (coundn't run it down in their archives), where he suggested he did not want to stay in Iraq .."because Republicans are no better at nation building than Democrats."

He did say much the same in the BBC interview

3/25[/2007]
BBC Newsnight's Jeremy Paxman
.....
Iraq 4 Years On: A Neo-con Rethink?
....
Q. Is there not an American responsibility, having invaded a country, dismantled all the apparatus of government, to ensure the citizens of that country are not murdered?

A. I think it's the responsibility which we've tried to fulfill to turn it back over to the Iraqis... We made a mistake in hindsight not turning it over to them earlier.
....
But we don't have a responsibility to make the government of Iraq succeed, that's their responsibility.

Q. Do you have a responsibility to keep the peace or not?

A. I think that's their responsibility too. I think we're all agreed the sooner the Iraqis can decide whether they're gonna do that or not the the better off everyone is.

Q. You sound as if you're washing your hands of the whole affair?
...
A. What I would have done differently is much earlier, much sooner after the overthrow, given it back to the Iraqis, and I'll exaggerate for effect here, but given them a copy of the Federalist Papers and said good luck.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuqNWG9sbuE&embed=1

[Tom Odom]

New material released on the push for war:

PR Push for Iraq War Preceded Intelligence Findings

"White Paper" Drafted before NIE even Requested

National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 254

Posted - August 22, 2008

For more information contact:
John Prados - (202) 994-7000

Washington D.C., August 22, 2008 - The U.S. intelligence community buckled sooner in 2002 than previously reported to Bush administration pressure for data justifying an invasion of Iraq, according to a documents posting on the Web today by National Security Archive senior fellow John Prados.

The documents suggest that the public relations push for war came before the intelligence analysis, which then conformed to public positions taken by Pentagon and White House officials. For example, a July 2002 draft of the "White Paper" ultimately issued by the CIA in October 2002 actually pre-dated the National Intelligence Estimate that the paper purportedly summarized, but which Congress did not insist on until September 2002.

A similar comparison between a declassified draft and the final version of the British government's "White Paper" on Iraq weapons of mass destruction adds to evidence that the two nations colluded in the effort to build public support for the invasion of Iraq. Dr. Prados concludes that the new evidence tends to support charges raised by former White House press secretary Scott McClellan and by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in its long-delayed June 2008 "Phase II" report on politicization of intelligence.