SCOTLAND MUST DISTANCE ITSELF FROM THE UK

THE current international crisis is unavoidable when there are at least two countries in the United Nations who consistently ignore international law. Israel seems to imagine it can bomb civilians, journalists and even official UN representatives with impunity.

This arrogance can be traced back as the large end of the wedge to its decision to assassinate suspected terrorists without any attempt to bring them to trial. This has now been extended to anyone and everyone who lives outside their borders.

Britain's silence on this issue and many others, and the Bush administration's torture of suspects in Cuba without regard to the Geneva Convention are actions which have embarrassed the whole international community and made absurd the idea of international human rights.

If certain countries can completely ignore international law then what is the point of the United Nations? If Britain backs every move by the US and Israel, no matter what its legality, then what is the point of Scotland being represented by Britain?

In Scotland most people would not agree with the US interfering in the Middle East. We would not agree with a carte blanche approach to Israel, and most people would want an immediate end to these unnecessary and illegal hostilities.

Unfortunately, it is quite obvious that Scotland's distinctive international voice will never be heard as long as it is tied up with the US's client state in Europe, the UK and the supine figures of Tony Blair, or his doppelganger David Cameron.

It's time for independence and it's time for our own voice to be heard on the international stage.

Joe Middleton, Wardieburn Place South, Edinburgh

This article: http://news.scotsman.com/opinion.cfm?id=1101322006