Iraq might have repelled ISIS from its borders last year, thereby bringing to an end the three-year-long rampage of violence waged by the terror group. Yet the legacy of bloodshed lives on as this week a UN report finds that the outfit has left in its wake more than 200 mass graves containing up to 12,000 corpses. Among the dead are women, children, the elderly and disabled as well as members of the country’s armed forces and police. The world body has advised that such systematic brutality may amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide. To be sure, the matter must be placed before the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the earliest. This is necessary in terms of both helping families understand what happened to their loved ones as well as moving forward on the path towards truth and justice on a national level. After all, the UN has previously said that ISIS is responsible for the murder of some 33,000 civilians; while injuring 55,000. Meaning that no one can raise doubts over the latter’s savagery. Yet what of the original sin committed against Iraq? Namely, the war of aggression waged by the US and Britain. For as things stand, neither Bush nor Blair has ever been held to account over their illegal military intervention in that country. Indeed, there is still no consensus on the actual number of Iraqis killed. The Iraq Body Count (IBC) project offers the most recent figures and puts the civilian death toll as of April 2017 at 173,686-193,965; representing a grand total of all the fatalities incurred from the war’s beginning in 2003 to the subsequent and ongoing chaos. Unfortunately, the exclusive of bringing to book of only non-state actors paves the way for charges of selective justice. A sort of retrospective vindication of particular nation states and their blatant misadventurism. For it was convenient for then British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson to talk of ISIS war crimes while ignoring Tony Blair’s misdemeanours, or, indeed, the fact that his own party voted for the invasion. This robs the Iraqi people of real agency. It is therefore hoped that the ICC will push ahead to determine whether or not it has sufficient evidence to formally try British forces in Iraq for war crimes. Regrettably, the US has thus far evaded the Court’s long arm given that it is not party to the Rome Statute. That being said, the ICC is continuing with efforts to investigate suspected war crimes in Afghanistan committed at the hands of foreign troops, including American soldiers; among others. If the major international powers continue to escape due process, the result will be prolonged refusals to entertain the links between a militarised foreign policy and the blowback at home. Indeed, at the end of last year Mr Johnson went as far as lambasting criticism of western military intervention as fuelling extremist narratives in the Muslim world; while singling out repressive states as the exclusive breeding grounds of terror. Thus for the Iraqi people to be delivered true justice — all actors involved in waging war on their country must ultimately find themselves in the dock. And the sooner the better. * Published in Daily Times, November 7th 2018.