No evidence has been seen that a genocide is occurring in Gaza or that women and children were targeted by the IDF, UK government lawyers have claimed, as a high court case opened into the handling of arms exports controls to Israel.

They also suggested there was no obligation placed on the UK to make other states comply with international humanitarian law but only to ensure that no breach occured within its jurisdiction.

The government is seeking to defend itself in a judicial review brought over allegations that it acted unlawfully in continuing to sell F-35 parts and components to a global pool, even though some of those components might be used by Israel in Gaza in a way that the government regards as a breach of international law.

Much of the case will turn on the extent to which international law places obligations in domestic law.

  • Tja@programming.dev
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    12 hours ago

    Yep, Iraq was a oasis of peace and tranquility before dubya. Peace, and tranquility. And war. And terror. And some ethnic cleansing. But mostly the tranquility.

    • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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      11 hours ago

      Iraq was never a good place to live after the Iraq-Iran war, but it wasn’t in a fucking civil war either. Nothing Saddam’s government did comes even close to this.

        • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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          9 hours ago

          I know he literally committed genocide against Iraqi Kurds that one time, but that still doesn’t come close to the sheer amount of death and destruction the West caused by violently overthrowing him. Just read the link in my reply and compare the numbers.

          • Tja@programming.dev
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            6 hours ago

            I know the numbers. If you take the deaths from the Iraq Iran war, the gassing of kurds and the direct deaths during the general repression, they are comparable. From 300k to 1M on each side, depending on the source.

            Let alone the Kuwait war and the excess deaths caused by the corruption and mismanagement leading to lower quality of life and lack of services.

            • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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              5 hours ago

              Wow, he really managed to outdo the war on terror. That’s fair, but I don’t know of any indication that he had the capability or willingness to do anything that flashy again, so America overthrew him after he’d been mostly pacified.

              • Tja@programming.dev
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                2 hours ago

                He was staying quiet, but you never know what he (or his sons) could have done if they stayed in power. Not that the shitshow the Americans did was right, but it’s complicated… Poor Iraqis don’t have an easy life.