It is just as well that Alison Brownowski was not around in 1939, she would have been one of those who were running around London painting "DON"T FIGHT IN THE SECOND IMPERIALIST WAR" on every London wall, as well as stating publicically that Hitler was a man of peace who had no intention of attacking her native Poland.

Of course, when Hitler did invade Polandand the the Soviet Union, Churchill nated with amusement that the Alison Brownowski's of London
were now running around London at night, scrubbing out their previous work, and painting "FIGHT FOR THE MOTHERLAND IN THIS ANTI FASCIST WAR!".

In 1939, the loony left was enamoured of the Soviet Unions ally, Adolph Hitler, and they blamed Winston Churchill as the warmonger who was threatening peace loving Nazi Germany with war. Now the Allison
Brownowski's are at it again. There is only one idiot responsible for the Iraq war and that is the late unlamented Saddam Hussein. Hussein did everything he could to convince the world that he was working on a nuclear weapon and given his previous behaviour, where he had twice attacked his neighbours in wars of imperial expansion, the allies had to take him out.

If Hitler had bragged about obtaining an atom bomb in 1939, what do you think the Europeans should have done?

Alison, Australia is now tied to the tail of a tiger that has gone completely feral, namely the U.S.

In the war that is approaching, the one where the U.S. tries for global domination, Australia will fare badly given where we live.

Australian politicians, U.S. sycophants all, seem oblivious to the danger. They fawn over America and close their eyes to what is happening there especially the corruption of their 'democracy'! The Australian people, in the main, are similarly affected.

Who will open our eyes?

Well, they would say that wouldn't they?

If Bush and his accomplices thought that Iraq actually possessed a WMD arsenal they would never have seriously considered invading the country. Iraq was invaded to make the NE safer for Israel and Zionism, Saddam Hussein was essentially a digression, for the last 35 years the main target has been Iran. Afghanistan was on the agenda well before 9/11, in that case the ultimate agenda was a possible US-China war.

As with any imperial power the American war machine just keeps on rolling, regardless of the politicians in office.

Alison, entirely agree with this article, well said, thanks.

We seem to have a new breed of politicians these days. They are not bound by honour, that's too old fashioned. Adolf Hitler had no Nuremberg precedent and probably expected to win, hence the absence of a cover-up or remorse. Today we live in a different world, but not so different. People like George W Bush, Tony Blair and John Howard think they have found a way to wriggle out of responsibility for the misery and destruction they have brought to so many millions of peoples' lives.

But I think it is important to make sure that it is widely known that they have committed crimes, albeit hat they have rigged the legal frameworks under which they could be tried. We must press on for an inquiry while drawing attention to Britain's three flawed and failed inquiries. We must demand that all relevant documents are released and that reputations of people whose salaries we paid are not spared.

I am glad that you will be coming to Brisbane to speak on the same platform as US Marine veteran and peace campaigner, Vince Emanuele on Friday 12 July. What you have to say is very important to him and to Australians.

No to a war of aggression against the people of Iran; no to the US Marine base near Darwin.

Alison, this is an important article. I would take issue however with one of your points. You say that "Yet Howard believed Saddam Hussein had WMD, apparently because Bush and Blair did."

There is no rational basis upon which Howard could have held such a belief. We now know a number of things we didn't know at the time of the invasion of Iraq. For example, we know that Bush had the invasion of Iraq on the agenda of his first cabinet meeting in January 2001.

Secondly, Wolfowitz has admitted that WMD was simply a selling point. Thirdly, the intelligence agencies had very good evidence that SH did not have any such weapons and told the politicians that. Notwithstanding that evidence Powell made a wholly dishonest presentation to the UN, something he now describes as the "low point" of his career.

Fourthly, up until 7 March 2003 the UK government had unanimous advice from its legal advisers, including the A-G Lord Goldsmith, that without a further UN Security Council resolution an invasion of Iraq would be illegal under international law. We now know that Goldsmith went to the US and 10 days after his definitive opinion to the UK government gave an answer in the House of Lords to a question that indicated he had changed his mind (uniquely among the government's legal advisers).

It was this 300+ word answer in the HL that Howard tabled in the Australian parliament as partial justification for his decision to join the US and UK in invading Iraq.

One of the true tragedies of that disastrous war (apart from to the Iraqis themselves) was that the notion of accountability for waging a war of aggression established by the Tokyo and Nuremberg tribunals has disappeared. We are now on the verge of repeating that mistake in Syria. A radical change in our foreign policy is required, and should not be expected either from the Rudd or Abbott led governments.