Starmer’s doctrine of fighting the defensive war is bad law

I have had cause before to point out that this PM guided by  international law is particularly bad at understanding international law. He was unaware the ICJ cannot make binding judgements over Chagos. He was unaware of the need to amend the US/UK Treaty on Diego Garcia before even  thinking of giving the island away as the US has a Treaty veto over the UK surrendering the freehold to protect their investment in the base .  He has been opining on international law in the US/Iran war without calling out Iran’s breaking of international law by imposing charges on ships using the seas for navigation which are banned  under the Law of the Sea.  A country can only charge for use of a man made canal, not for waters close to its shore. The UK is not allowed to charge people for using the English Channel, a similarly narrow waterway to the Straits of Hormuz.

So let us look at his silly interpretation of the law of war. He said the UK and US could use bases to defend themselves but not to attack an enemy. If that was international law and all obeyed it there would never be a war. The laws of war allow a country to attack for military necessity to get an enemy to submit. They need to avoid civilian casualties, and ensure only proportionate civilian deaths where civilians are enmeshed with legitimate military targets. There are rules against torture, deception using symbols like the Red Cross and against certain particularly savage types of weapon.

What Starmer is saying is impossible for our armed forces. He is saying that our bases cannot send out force to attack an enemy about to attack us. They have to wait and then try their best to shoot down the incoming missiles, drones  and shells. In person to person  combat it would  imply a soldier needs to wait until he has been shot at before returning fire which would then only be possible if the enemy had missed the first time. It is this doctrine which can lead  to many past soldiers being investigated for alleged war crimes when they were acting under orders to take pre emptive action against defined enemy combatants.

All this war so far he has made out that the UK is not at war with Iran. It is true most of us  did not  want to go to war with Iran and Parliament and PM never declared war on Iran. It is also true Iran treats us as a combatant because it sees our bases , personnel and weapons as part of a US led system in the Middle East. It has been shooting at our people and facilities. Our personnel and weapons have been used to shoot down Iranian missiles and drones. The PM lives in a parallel universe, seeing the polls say the war is a bad idea. He then conjures up press events saying he is working to de escalate the conflict, yet he fails to talk to Iran or the US or Israel who are the powers that could de escalate if they wanted to.

Yesterday he went to the Middle East to thank UK military personnel in the conflict. What did he do whilst there to engage the combatants? What is his plan to create a lasting peace? Will he at last condemn the Iranian idea that they should levy a toll on ships and decide who can use the freedom of the seas off their coasts under threat of being blown up if they fail to comply? Is HMS Dragon still the only destroyer or frigate we have that can do anything? When will it be fully ready?