Michael et al,
Sorry for the delay in responding. The question of whether human rights abuses alone could sanction the conflict is controversial - and therefore very interesting. However, humanitarian intervention demands a very high level of human rights abuses that can only be stopped by the immediate use of military force, especially if it is unsanctioned by the UN Security Council. This in effect means genocide - and the threat must be imminent.
Though Saddam's rule was tyrannical, as has been pointed out, it was not materially worse than lots of other places, and though the campaign against the Marsh Arabs post GW1 and the Anfal campaign against the Kurds in the 1980s could be classed as genocide, neither were happening in 2003 , and therefore the humanitarian intervention argument probably fails; in Darfur, however, it could probably succeed, as it did in Kosovo.
So, GW2 was illegal; but as has been discussed previously, this is not what this GCM is about.
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