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"If a criminal wears a mask, study carefully his necktie - color and pattern."
Dick Tracy

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Carl Bildt in International Herald Tribune:
"No going back: Regime change in Iraq isn't optional"
2003-01-28
"Seven ways to rebuild Iraq: Hard-earned lessons on nation-building"
2003-05-07

"USA har satt Mellanöstern i brand"
Pierre Schori in Svenska Dagbladet
2007-05-13

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Attac Sweden:
After the war in Iraq

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Have you read
"The sad tale of Carolus Rex"?
(Hard Rain no 23)

 
Hard Rain    No 28    May 5, 2007
No regrets - Carl Bildt and the war in Iraq
The US attack on Iraq, without support in the UN Security council and in breach of the law of nations, had not been possible without some political and other support. Carl Bildt, now foreign minister in Sweden, was part of this circle of supporters.
 
The US attack on Iraq is the most remarkable crime according to international law since the days of World War II. No other country has in such a way broken the ban of aggression in the UN charter.

But this crime, without support in the UN Security council and in breach of the law of nations, had not been possible without some political and other support. Carl Bildt was part of this circle of supporters.

"at best we shall see four to six weeks of difficult regime removal followed by four to six years of even more difficult regime reconstruction". That is a way for a former Swedish prime minister to talk with some insight (International Herald Tribune, 2003-01-28).



  At the end of 2002 Carl Bildt was recruited to the lobby organization Committee for the Liberation of Iraq (CLI), working for the invasion of Iraq. Today he is the foreign minister of Sweden.

I his article in International Herald Tribune Bildt certainly talks tough. "… the buildup of military pressure is essential. -- It must also be clear that if the far preferable ways of achieving regime removal do not succeed, the less preferable way of war will have to be undertaken."

Three months later "the world is learning once again that it is far easier to destroy a regime with military might than to build a new state out of the bomb craters." (International Herald Tribune 2003-05-07)

Now four years have passed. 4 million Iraqis have fled from their country and 665 000 civilians have been slaughtered in the war. What has the Swedish foreign minister to say about that? Not much!

When will the government pronounce, loud and clear, that the occupation of Iraq lacks support in the law of nations? And when will Carl Bildt assume responsibility?