Additional Protocol of Geneva Convention Article 35, 1977 states that ' .. it is illegal to employ methods or means of warfare which are intended, or may be expected to cause long term damage to the environment ..' 'Care shall be taken ... to protect the natural environment against wdespread, long term and severe damage ..' and ''attacks against the environment by way of reprisals are prohibited.'

This addition was drawn up as a response to weapons and methods used in Viet Nam by the US. Napalm, 'unusual weapons', phosphorous bombs, depleted uranium weapons, destruction of homes, lives, livilihood, indiscriminate, massive, uncounted, unmarked civilian deaths, all, of course, defy the Geneva and numerous other international treaties and conventions. But Iraq's palms are as dates are to Palestine. The Prophet Mohammed - peace and blessings be upon him - named the palm the 'monarch of the desert.'

Iraq was not only the world's largest producer of dates, the date palm has a special sanctity. Crushed dates laid on a baby's tongue at the naming ceremony, kernels polished as jewellery, worry beads, crushed as cattle feed, fronds woven into intricate, evocative bird cages, beautiful boxes, baskets, decorated and plain matting, fronds and branches used in building, as shelters - on and on, nothing is wasted. The celebration of the date harvest is a seasonal joy, with the abundance and richness of the fruit, piled. 'colour coded' in browns, near purples, golden hues, in great baskets - woven from the fronds.

But what do US law makers and their army know of cultures, of the law. What do they care of beauty, humanity's history - and what do their IDF pals in US uniform - oh yes there are - care about. Just the vow to rule the region 'from the Nile to the Euphrates.'

Commentators frequently write and remark that actions of the US and the coalition of the coerced has led much of the Islamic world to despise them at best and generated hate and a desire for revenge, at worst. This is erroneous, it is not alone the Islamic world. Increasingly, amongst non-Muslim people, of all walks of life, in the west, in Australia, this fury is mirrored.

If the up to 100,000 civilian dead up to January this year, cited in the Lancet turns out to be correct, that would be broadly the equivalent of a 9/11 in Iraq about every three and half weeks over that twenty one month period. Vengeance wreaked on a country who had nothing to do with the destruction of the twin towers, but vengeance built, metaphorically on lies as high.

And there is another deeply worrying trend. Just as during the horrors of the embargo years, western leaders and many commentators attempted to portray every Iraqi as their leadership - our allies for a very long time, let us not forget - now that trend has turned toward the US. Many no longer talk of their fury and loathing toward the US Administration, they say 'Americans.'

I believe it a tragic truth that the outpouring of the world towards America on the 11th September 2001, on which the memorial to those tragic, horrific deaths could have been a real chance for world peace, a 'tide in the affairs of men, which, if taken at the flood ..' would have led to formerly hostile and complex diplomatic issues being resolved. I wonder, with a heavy sadness, if there was another 9/11, how many round the globe would even care.

The road to redemption for us all, is not further destruction, slaughter or to Damascus, Iran or North Korea. It is the one home for all the illegally occupying forces, reparation and the biggest mea culpa in history.

The other alternative can be found in the words of Richard Nixon in 1970 - 'America has never been defeated in the proud, one hundred and ninety year history of this country and we shall not be defeated in Vietnam.' Add thirty five years and replace 'Vietnam' with 'Iraq'.

Herewith the death of the dates. The UN satellite survey of the world's environment for World Environment Day, estimates eighty percent of the date palms in southern Iraq have been destroyed. In the region, the majority were the great, regal 'royal' palms encapsulated as entitled by the Prophet.