Dear Prime Minister Blair,

Earlier this year the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, called the existence of the US prison at Guantanamo Bay “unacceptable” and a “symbol of injustice” leading most observers to conclude that he had serious concerns about the legality of the camp. Previously, in March of this year you also called for the closure of the camp but avoided commenting on the allegations of torture apart from casting dispersions on such allegations by saying that the “Americans dispute many of these claims…”.

What is not in dispute by those who are even marginally sceptical of US claims is that as of this month, as many of 75% of the prisoners at Guantanamo have never seen a lawyer and that the vast majority of prisoners held have never been involved in terrorism or posed a threat to anyone. Further, the horrendous forms of prolonged mental torture used routinely in US prisons are publicly acknowledged and obvious. I have written to you before regarding the disgraceful infringements of other basic human rights and the fundamental legal protections these inmates are being denied and shall not list these in detail again here.

That you are unable to overtly criticise such appalling affronts to the most basic systems of justice is a damning indictment of your failing judgement and lack of moral backbone. That you have tried privately to influence the US government to close the prison, I do not doubt. That you have failed miserably and are content to accept such failure is evident. When this is viewed alongside your eagerness to engage in a pre-emptive war based on false causes, your atrocious silence as Lebanese civilians were mercilessly bombarded by Israeli forces and your inability to voice any form of meaningful dissent to the increasingly incoherent and ludicrous schemes of George Bush, it is clear that you have lost you way, morally.

You are a Chamberlain type figure, unwaveringly pursuing an increasingly desperate policy of appeasement towards the Bush Administration and hoping anxiously that through some last minute miracle the damage they have done to the ideals of Democracy, Freedom and Justice will be erased from the world’s collective memory. As should be apparent to you by now, President Bush is not a man of honour and further affronts to the Western standards of Democracy and Justice by the collection of sociopaths who currently run the White House are inevitable.

Your policy of appeasement towards the US has lead to immeasurable damage being done to the people of Iraq, to the ideals of Freedom and to the reputation of the UK government as an active defender of International Law and Human Rights.

I therefore respectfully ask that you resign as Prime Minister immediately.

Yours sincerely

AJ Bladderwait.

Dear Foreign Secretary Beckett,

I write to you requesting clarification on the British government’s position on the recent trial and execution of Saddam Hussein. Your recent comments applauding the fact that Saddam was tried by an “Iraqi court” and that he has now been “held to account” are interesting observations when we consider that the terms of the tribunal set up to try Saddam required approval by the US Defence and State departments, that the trial, its judges and lawyers were massively funded by the US and UK governments and that the trial took a total of six different judges to come to a close. Even if we ignore the problem that any Iraqi judge who lived under the 24 year reign of Saddam Hussein could not seriously be considered impartial and we also ignore the background of violence which claimed the lives of seven people involved with the trial, including three of Saddam’s defence lawyers we are left some fairly blatant political interference. Are we to believe that the announcement of Saddam’s guilt on the 5th Nov, shortly before the US congressional and senate elections was an amazing coincidence? Do you believe that a legal system which allows trial judges to be selected and removed directly by politicians is a serious form of justice?

It is quite apparent to me that this trial was a complete sham, that whatever the Iraqi government’s intentions and capabilities there was no way that they or their US sponsors could be impartial in this case. It should very clearly have been tried in the Hague, but then that would have involved some form of international justice system, something the US administration is allergic to.

However, I do congratulate you for your fervour in supporting justice in principle in the Middle East. Saddam Hussein’s reign lead to the brutal deaths of many innocent people, statistically much like the reign of GW Bush and Tony Blair has. I assume that you will pursue, with equal vigour, justice for the innocent civilians killed in the US missile attack on Damadola village, in Pakistan in January 06 for example. Surely bringing the cold blooded murders of women and children to trial is what international justice is all about? Will you be calling for an investigation and trial of those who ordered the killings in Damadola?

Yours sincerely

AJ Bladderwait

Dear Prime Minister Blair,

I am sure that daily you receive many hundreds of letters which berate you for your pivotal role in the unmitigated human catastrophe which continues to unfold in Iraq. Rather than simply add another letter to this large pile, I thought that I would offer you a potential solution which may help to extract you and our troops, but most importantly the Iraqi civilians from this epic disaster.

As you may be aware, you are a popular personality amongst the American public, indeed you are considerably more popular than the current president. Your unwavering public support for GW Bush has added massive amounts of credibility to his policies. Your continued endorsements and frequent face to face meetings have propped up a deeply unpopular leader at critical points in his term. Your public and utterly consistent support for the US Administration’s foreign policy in the Middle East has added credibility to a thoroughly discredited group of policy makers who routinely produce laughably primitive and child like strategies with which to engage the world around them.

In short Sir, your continued support of this US administration is highly valuable to them and may even be critical to them exerting any form of policy leverage over the Republican party’s remaining Senators and Congressmen and effectively governing the remainder of the president’s term. In return, over the last 5 years President Bush has been less than effective at meeting your agenda requirements, things like a balanced approach to the Palestinian conflict, a world trade deal or the closure of Guantanamo bay prison. In point of fact the US government have politely done nothing whatsoever to accommodate your point of view or policies. This is why people call you a poodle. Your protestations that the US is the most powerful country in the world and a force for good, ignores the fact that the current government also represents an awful lot of what is evil in the world.

But I digress, the object of this letter is to encourage you to order the withdrawal of all UK military personnel from Iraq as a matter or urgency. The military situation in Iraq is futile, the Pandora’s box of ethnic hatred was opened the minute the Iraqi government was overthrown and the limitation of the US and UK’s military might is obvious to everyone but the American Neo-conservatives. Regardless of whether we wish it to be so or not, the fact is that Coalition has been comprehensively defeated in its war against the insurgent groups in Iraq and it now justifiably represents a focal point for a population which is suffering under incredible injustice and violence. The US military forces have demonstrated incredible incompetence in counter insurgency warfare by showing an almost total disregard for the lives of ordinary Iraqis when engaging “suspected terrorists”. Sending additional troops as per the President’s latest plan will not change the fact that the US forces do not have the confidence of the population and are unable to bring about any form of genuine and long lasting stability or political resolution. The fantastically naïve notion that such an ethnically suppressed and brutalised population could form trusted and impartial policing and judicial systems so that “we can stand down as the Iraqis stand up” in a matter of a few years is a delusion. Collectively, we have deeply scarred and damaged Iraq and our continued presence is not making things better.

It should be apparent to you (as it is to the majority of the country) that President Bush will only order the withdrawal of US troops only when it is politically expedient for him to do so. His administration has no other consideration and as such the killing of coalition troops will, under your current policy, only end when GW Bush’s ego tells him the time is right. Therefore it is necessary to either a) show some leadership and unilaterally and immediately withdraw our troops, or b) make it politically expedient for Bush to order a withdrawal, ie by telling him that you are going to withdraw UK forces with or without his blessing. Sitting around waiting for the geniuses in the White House to come up with a strategy with more prospects than “Stay the Course” is going to be a long wait. Claiming that we are currently doing more good than harm is irrelevant when there is no ultimate exit strategy which does not involve further more sectarian violence and political revolution.

I urge you to bring our troops home now and maybe your actions will force the hand of an insulated and stubborn lame duck president whose primary concern is his own image and thus you just might bring about the beginning of the end of the horrendous tragedy in Iraq.

Yours sincerely

AJ Bladderwait