Last week Kofi Annan explicitly stated to the BBC that the war in Iraq was illegal, no news here to millions of people all over the world but contentious still in certain conservative circles in the US, England and Australia, (i.e., the countries who circumvented a UN authorization.) The defense of those governments is that Iraq’s failure to comply with various UN resolutions since the Gulf war warranted the use of force. However, at the same time those same government’s lead by the US site the UN’s failure to sufficiently deal with the situation as part of their rational in claiming their sovereign right to use force, undermining the credibility and democratic authority of the UN in the process. This is a contradiction and another example of type of double standard we are used to seeing in US foreign policy.
But, whatever, none of this is news to anyone here and I would guess that most of you here are either for this notion or against it. I want to ask should the architects of the Iraq war face trial and some sort of censure under international law? But, I already know how divisive the response would be in this somewhat polarized forum. So instead I would like to pose the following questions.
1. Should the international community function as a democracy?
2. If "the war on terrorism” as this has been defined is indeed a global war is some sort of international consensus needed in the application of force?
3. What is the best way to deal with a rogue country who acts in contempt of the international community?
4. If such a rogue nation is also a superpower should they be governed by the same set of international laws and principals and dealt with equally?
But, whatever, none of this is news to anyone here and I would guess that most of you here are either for this notion or against it. I want to ask should the architects of the Iraq war face trial and some sort of censure under international law? But, I already know how divisive the response would be in this somewhat polarized forum. So instead I would like to pose the following questions.
1. Should the international community function as a democracy?
2. If "the war on terrorism” as this has been defined is indeed a global war is some sort of international consensus needed in the application of force?
3. What is the best way to deal with a rogue country who acts in contempt of the international community?
4. If such a rogue nation is also a superpower should they be governed by the same set of international laws and principals and dealt with equally?