Talk:RAF officer refusing to serve in Iraq

This could be a big one
worth watching Neutralizer 02:18, 21 October 2005 (UTC)

I hope they make an example out of this idiot and give him at least 5 years of time. The war was not illegal, Saddam violated the 1991 cease fire agreement, thereby continuing the first gulf war, of which Britain was a part of. written by 67.142.130.14


 * Comment; Great intro....the 1st. Gulf War was a double cross of Saddam by Bush Sr. who had the U.S. ambassador,Glaspie, give Saddam the green light to attack Kuwait. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_Glaspie . "'We have no opinion on your Arab - Arab conflicts...the Kuwait issue is not associated with America' were interpreted by Saddam as giving tacit acquiescence to his annexation of Kuwait"....read,learn,think. Neutralizer 19:49, 22 October 2005 (UTC)

Oh let us all bow down before the mighty logic of User:67.142.130.14! His reasoning is impervious!
 * I just cite the facts. written by 67.142.130.14

I just love it when armchair neocons like User:67.142.130.14 are so ready to denegrate members of the armed forces when they don't fit into their image of the brave soldier defending his country. Why don't you go and join the army yourself? You're so patriotic and gung-ho online, but I bet you don't have the guts to sacrifice your own life. And look, I'll even sign my message. Imroy 18:44, 21 October 2005 (UTC)
 * Better yet, I will volunteer then refuse to uphold the oath I have taken, and use a false excuse to justify my actions. I will gladly collect my salary check each month, until there is a war, at which point I will refuse to do my job.written by 67.142.130.14

Then what do you do if when doing your job, you are asked to kill innocent people ? Optimix 18:25, 22 October 2005 (UTC)
 * exactly; or to strip prisoners and hang'em from the ceiling. This war is just as illegal as Hitler's invasions..I'm rooting for this brave RAF officer; Flight Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith Neutralizer 19:45, 22 October 2005 (UTC)

I have just heard that Flt Lt Kendall-Smith has been found guilty. This was inevitable, since, if the senior officers on his board finds that his reasons were justified then the Air Farce itself would have been guilty of fighting an illeagal war. It would be like expecting an SS Board of Honour to find one of its own innocent after refusing to participate in the invasion of Poland. Not too likely.

It takes more courage to refuse to go to Iraq than to keep your head down and say nothing. The chances of being killed in Iraq is probably less than fifty-fifty so there is a good chance that he would have survived, with so-called 'honour' intact.

It is quite revealing that he was not allowed to argue the 'Nuremburg Defence' in open court. The last thing that the establishment wants is to be reminded of is the justifications they used to be able to convict and execute government ministers of the Third Reich. 'Waging aggressive war' was one of the counts they were tried on. Perhaps people might have said that seeing Blair and Bush hanging from a gibbet (is that spelling right?) was quite a good idea. As an aside to that, it is interesting that the one crime that the International Criminal Court is unable to try is that one. The definition of 'waging aggressive war' has not been agreed. Nice little loophole for Britain. I personally think Blair would suit an outfit with arrows on, or, better still, an orange jump-suit.

Before all you right-wingers out there start deriding my lack of patriotism I would like to say that I served in the RAF from 1971 to 1982, although they weren't silly enough to trust me with a gun in public, unlike the poor sods at Deepcut. To those will no doubt criticise me I would simply say, when did you serve?

Finally, I would like to remind people that the stated reason Britain went to war was to eliminate the 'Weapons of Mass Destruction'. Blair knew they were in Iraq because his friends, the Americans, had sold them to Saddam Hussein in the eighties to tackle their enemy, Iran. Blair catagorically said that regime change was not the reason. Since his little adventure went tits-up he has been saying that getting rid of Saddam was his intention all along. Meanwhile, back in the real world, the only thing Bush knew for certain existed in Iraq was OIL. Lots of it. Since he was denied a free supply from Venezuala when the CIA-engineered coup failed he was forced to look for another target. That the likes of Haliburton would benefit by several billions of dollars was an added bonus.

End of tirade - for now