Bob Fitrakis is a poli-sci prof at Columbus State and a widely published commentator. In the pasted on op-ed he looks at three recent books by Washington insiders - not authors from the liberal left as he points out - and concludes that given the evidence of Iraq war planning going back to at least late 2001 George Bush should be tried as a war criminal.

Harsh unreality? Politically unbalanced or naive? Read his arguments.

Mr. Martin, I have sent you 20 plus almost weekly 'Silence is appeasement' messages containing the best op-eds and scholarly papers documenting the evidence about illegal war in Iraq. Cumulatively they provide quite a case, including or maybe highlighted by:

John Dean on what Bush and co actually said about Saddam, WMDs and connections with Al-Qeada as arguments for war; Jay Bookman on the neocon agenda in their manifestos and a decade of premeditation of war for self-interest, geostrategic ends; Lisa Martin and the authors of WAR WITH IRAQ concerning the hollowing out and poisoning of multilateral relations by Bush Admin unilateralism; John LeCarre trying to tell the real story about Iraq:

'That war on Iraq was illegitimate... it was a criminal and immoral conspiracy. No provocation, no link with al-Qaeda, no weapons of Armageddon. Tales of complicity and Osama were self-serving bullshit. It was an old colonial war dressed up as a crusade for Western life and liberty, and it was launched by a clique of war-hungry Judaeo-Christian geopolitical fantasists who hijacked the media and exploited America's post-Nine Eleven psychopathy.'

I'm sure you have a much more researched and nuanced perspective on the US/Iraq event, but how can you ignore the overwhelming evidence of illegal war when respect for the rule of law and multilateralism are so central to the Canadian worldview and that of your Liberal party? When American leadership in the evolving complex democratic new world order is so crucially important to Canadians?

You know there is overwhelming evidence of a crime, but you are going to meet with the perpetrators and say nothing when you have the opportunity of the attention of the American press and public? What does that make you Mr. Martin and where does it leave us as Canadians who know?

[Attached copy of the following article: www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2004/873]