War-crimes not a resigning matter

Tam Dalyell, UK MP and father of the House of Commons, may not be fashionable, but I’m pretty sure he has “nonsense” inscribed on his forehead. At the end of March, he had this to say about Tony Blair:

I…believe that since Mr Blair is going ahead with his support for a US attack without unambiguous UN authorisation, he should be branded as a war criminal and sent to The Hague.
The Guardian, March 27th 2003

Okay, so maybe there will be one or two Baathists reading this who will think that this is not such a bad idea. But I wonder what they will think about Mr Dalyell’s latest offering in today’s Observer/Guardian:

My view is that, depending on the inquiry, they [Campbell and Blair] have got to reflect on their positions. I am not at this moment asking that the Prime Minister resign, but it may be that, after a few days, he will feel he has to move aside for someone else. It could not be graver for him.
The Observer/Guardian, July 20th 2003

So we have the situation where Mr Dalyell seems to believe both that Mr Blair should not immediately resign*, but should be branded a war criminal and sent to the Hague for war crimes. Excellent! It’s always good to hear that war crimes do not necessarily warrant one’s resignation. Also it’s pleasing that the intellectual Left are resurgent again…

*Yes, yes, I know he’s talking about a different issue, but if you think about it closely, you’ll see it doesn’t alter the logic here.

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