Families of killed soldiers plan to sue Blair

uk.news.yahoo.com...

what you guys think of this? should this be allowed,i know all allied countries have lost good men a soliders as i have served with many but is this really necessary, i mean sueing a government is not going to help anyone, except reduce funding what our boys need to operate professionally!! if they start this then i think everyone will jump on the band wagon!

apologises for any incorrect gramma, new here...

Suing a political figure over an illegal military action that wastes lives, equipment, and money seems to be the least that can be done for compensation. If you live in an alleged democratic republic that extolls itself as virtuous then you should realize that taking over countries for non-defensive purposes is the antithesis of what your country currently stands for. If Britain wishes to return to its imperialist self, it should admit it and toss out this lawsuit on the grounds that it doesn't care about legalities anymore. There is supposed to be accountability for wrongdoing these days. Which has certainly not been the case.

[edit on 3-5-2005 by Frith]

This sort of litigation should never be allowed. The president that it creates is a terrible one leading to very damaging situations. Does that mean Blair shouldnt be accountable? No, of course he should be accounatble. But not through a law suit of this kind.

No good can become of a this if this makes it to court.

[edit on 3-5-2005 by skippytjc]

It's their legal right to do so, why should politicians be outside the law. I doubt it result in Blair being convicted though.

Question is, how do we achieve some kind of accountability here?

There have been numerous screwups and half-truths that led to the invasion. Apart from a few largely ceremonial resignation, nobody really answered for that.

maybe if they make this a private suit then yeah i agree, they have to be held accountable for this but not when it could effect the entire government having to payout compensation, you cannot have everyone sueing the government everytime they make the wrong decission!

But hey really good valid points guys

I feel for the ones who lost loved ones....

But Come on, give me a break.......thier sons signed the freaking contract just like our boys did.

Anyways, thier sons could have went for thier owns reasons, politics aside.
Could have been helping others or whatever. They are only going against what thier sons probably beleived in.

next thing we know there's gonna be an epidemic of people sueing the goverment because they lost someone due to a violent crime and they says it's the gov'ts fault because they should lock the bad guys up....
bla bla bla

next thing we know there's gonna be an epidemic of people sueing the goverment because they lost someone due to a violent crime and they says it's the gov'ts fault because they should lock the bad guys up....
bla bla bla

you are so right!
I served with the british military and i still would of come here to help people and remove this dictator who should of been removed from power back in 91

This will never make it to court.

However, the public are aware of the motivation for trying to get it to a court.

This WILL be remembered.

yeah your right if this does go through any lenth it will be remembered, has anyone actually read if anyone has sucessfully sued a government in simular circumstances? and what was the out come of this?

I thought only Americans sued everyone for every little thing. Glad to hear we're not the only sue happy morons in the world.

Those of you who are not from America should know we sue restaurants for hot coffee or soup that we spill on ourselves or for food we buy and eat that makes us fat. If it rains & we slip in a parking lot we sue the parking lot owner since we cannot sue the guy that made it rain & if we try to rob your store & one of your employees hurts us while were making an escape we sue you for that too. A 10k engine for a private aircraft cost an extra 50k because everytime some inexperienced moron fogets to put enough gas in his airplane his family sues the engine maker for not telling the moron it needs constant fuel and you just can't pull over & call AAA when it runs out thus the extra 50k goes to the engine makers insurance company lawyers.


[edit on 4-5-2005 by outsider]

Um...Blair's salary comes from taxes, which comes from the people...so they're basically suing themselves? And when that money is paid out, then wouldn't the government just have to collect more taxes to compensate?

Not saying they shouldn't do it, but I wonder if they thought this through.

Exactly - that's the stupidity of the whole matter - if the people got screwed they just screwed the people some more.

[edit on 3-5-2005 by outsider]

Originally posted by jayce
uk.news.yahoo.com...

what you guys think of this? should this be allowed,i know all allied countries have lost good men a soliders as i have served with many but is this really necessary, i mean sueing a government is not going to help anyone, except reduce funding what our boys need to operate professionally!! if they start this then i think everyone will jump on the band wagon!

apologises for any incorrect gramma, new here...

The reason they are taking action against the Government, is purely on the grounds that the war was illegal.


[edit on 03/12/04 by Bikereddie]

I think it's stupid imo really, I mean hell THEY did SIGN UP willingly for the army did they not, or does the uk force people to join their armies?

Originally posted by Lysergic
I think it's stupid imo really, I mean hell THEY did SIGN UP willingly for the army did they not, or does the uk force people to join their armies?

There are British laws and international laws which made the invasion of Iraq illegal. Much as we have found out. Soldiers signing up for war has nothing to do with this lawsuit. Its about misuse of power by Tony Blair sending voluntary soldiers into an illegal war.

Although it is bad that troops are being killed in Iraq it is what they signed up for and i feel the relatives are trying to ride on the band wagon of people who feel the war should never have happened.
The head of the army was assured the war was legal and there were a lot of countries in the alliance that agreed. If the govs legal advisor says something is legal then who is there to disagree? The book has to stop somewhere or we would never make any decisions as a country.

Originally posted by Bikereddie
The reason they are taking action against the Government,
is purely on the grounds that the war was illegal.

This always makes me laugh. 'The war was illegal'. Yeah. Right.

War is war. No one has to seek permission to go to war. It's just done.
America was attacked in an act of war. The attackers didn't seek
permission (from who???) to attack us. They just did. We attacked back
to make sure they didn't do it again. Germany didn't seek permission
from anyone to go to war with it's neighbors in WWII. They just did it.
Japan didn't seek permission to go to war with America in WWII.
They just did it. Clinton didn't seek permission to go to war in Kosovo.
He just did it. War is war. No one need permission to go to war. For
anyone to say the war was 'illegal' ... that's beyond

As far as people suing the gov't of England and Tony Blair. That's dumb.
The soldiers volunteered for duty. They knew what they were doing.
They didn't have to volunteer. And if people sue Tony Blair it's THEIR
TAX MONEY that will be spent on legalities. So they are just screwing
themselves and looking stupid while doing it.

IMO it's desparately sad really.

The families' understandable deep grief is being used by the opportunist opponents of this gov to score cheap political points during the current election campaign. It's pretty sick too really.

The fact remains that the Attorney General (the highest legal adviser the UK gov has) did not say the war was illegal, quite the contrary in fact.

(But because the AG's formal 'legal opinion' gave - as legal opinions always do - points for and against this has been claimed to demonstrate he was not convinced.
Sadly this is a nonsense reliant on other's ignorance and/or the deliberate concealment of what formal legal opinions are and how they are meant to be.

IMO it is only going to lead to more upset for the bereaved families as the bulk of their political support walks away tomorrow after the UK polls close and later when the courts eventually throw this out.
I feel so sorry for the families in this; it just compounds the tragedy of their suffering.)