If I may say so, it's about bloody time! This just in from the BBC:
"The United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has told the BBC the US-led invasion of Iraq was an illegal act that contravened the UN charter.
He said the decision to take action in Iraq should have been made by the Security Council, not unilaterally.
"Lessons for the US, the UN and other member states. I think in the end everybody's concluded it's best to work together with our allies and through the UN," Mr Annan said in an interview with the BBC World Service.
"I hope we do not see another Iraq-type operation for a long time - without UN approval and much broader support from the international community."
"From our point of view and the [UN] charter point of view it was illegal," he added.
Annan's comments come as attention moves towards Iraq's scheduled January elections, which may or may not be possible. The BBC pairs this story up with analysis of two new US reports on Iraq, both of which paint a fairly dismal picture.
UPDATE: Responding to Annan's comments, Aussie PM John Howard said the invasions was both legal and valid:
"The legal advice that we had, and I tabled it at the time, was that the action was entirely valid in international law terms," he said. "That was a legal opinion we obtained from the relevant people in Australia. There had been a series of Security Council resolutions and the advice we had was that it was entirely legal."
Similarly, speaking from a dank cell somewhere, Saddam Hussein said his gassing of the Kurds was entirely legal and valid because it had been approved by his justice ministers.
If Annan's verdict proves correct, Howard will probably claim that he was mis-led by ministerial advice, though nobody will ever be sacked for such misleading advice.
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