The Rouse of Success in Iraq
November 4th 2007 02:07
“By taking the fight to the enemy in Iraq, we will defeat the terrorists there so we do not have to face them in the United States,” President George W. Bush said during his speech at Fort Jackson in South Carolina.
Linking Iraq to a possible terrorist attack in the U.S. is similar to the remarks made by Bush during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. In a March 18 letter from Bush to the Congress Bush declared using “armed forces against Iraq is consistent with the United States and other countries” taking actions necessary against terrorists “including those nations, organizations or person who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.”
Bush addressed the UN General Assembly on September 12, 2002. During his address he stated, “With every step the Iraqi regime takes toward gaining and deploying the most terrible weapons, our own options to confront that regime will narrow. And if an emboldened regime were to supply these weapons to terrorist allies, then the attacks of September the 11th would be a prelude to far greater horrors.”
U.S. military deaths in Iraq fell during the month of October. Bush mentioned that fact during his speech at Fort Jackson: “U.S. military deaths have fallen to their lowest level in 19 months.” Bush administration officials attribute the decrease in deaths to the military surge which began in January.
On May 1, 2003 Bush proclaimed that “major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.” Since then almost four thousand U.S. military personnel have been killed, and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians.
In August 2006 Iraqi civilian deaths dropped. U.S. officials attributed the drop in deaths to a crackdown on insurgents by U.S. troops. Both U.S. military deaths and Iraqi civilian deaths have swelled and decreased a number of times since the March 2003 invasion.
Invading Iraq Violated International Law
The invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq is what international law experts call a preventive war. The Center for Constitutional Rights calls a preventive war a “crime against peace” because the UN does not authorize it.
The UN Charter is part of U.S. laws as it was signed by President Harry Truman, and ratified by the Senate. It prohibits wars which have not been authorized by the UN Security Council except for self defense. The UN Charter preamble states that “armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest. According to the second article member nations must “refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations.”
The UN Security Council never authorized the use of force against Iraq by the U.S. During a 2004 interview with the BBC, then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan answered “yes” when asked if the war in Iraq was illegal. He stated, “I have indicated it is not in conformity with the UN Charter, from our point of view, and from the Charter point of view it was illegal.”
During a September 2004 press briefing in New York Fred Eckhard spokesman for Annan, said, “He has…used the words 'not in conformity with the Charter' to describe his view of the Iraq war.” Eckhard added, “His purposes in establishing the UN panel on change was to look at the question of preventive war and try to bring that in conformity with the Charter principles, which do not promote preventive war.”
Retired international law professor Richard Falk characterized the Bush administration’s push to invade Iraq in 2002 as violating the “spirit and letter of the U.S. Constitution” and violating the UN Charter. As Henry Kissinger stated, “The notion of justified pre-emption runs counter to modern international law, which sanctions the use of force in self-defense only against actual not potential threats.”
Linking Iraq to a possible terrorist attack in the U.S. is similar to the remarks made by Bush during the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. In a March 18 letter from Bush to the Congress Bush declared using “armed forces against Iraq is consistent with the United States and other countries” taking actions necessary against terrorists “including those nations, organizations or person who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.”
Bush addressed the UN General Assembly on September 12, 2002. During his address he stated, “With every step the Iraqi regime takes toward gaining and deploying the most terrible weapons, our own options to confront that regime will narrow. And if an emboldened regime were to supply these weapons to terrorist allies, then the attacks of September the 11th would be a prelude to far greater horrors.”
U.S. military deaths in Iraq fell during the month of October. Bush mentioned that fact during his speech at Fort Jackson: “U.S. military deaths have fallen to their lowest level in 19 months.” Bush administration officials attribute the decrease in deaths to the military surge which began in January.
On May 1, 2003 Bush proclaimed that “major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.” Since then almost four thousand U.S. military personnel have been killed, and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians.
In August 2006 Iraqi civilian deaths dropped. U.S. officials attributed the drop in deaths to a crackdown on insurgents by U.S. troops. Both U.S. military deaths and Iraqi civilian deaths have swelled and decreased a number of times since the March 2003 invasion.
Invading Iraq Violated International Law
The invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq is what international law experts call a preventive war. The Center for Constitutional Rights calls a preventive war a “crime against peace” because the UN does not authorize it.
The UN Charter is part of U.S. laws as it was signed by President Harry Truman, and ratified by the Senate. It prohibits wars which have not been authorized by the UN Security Council except for self defense. The UN Charter preamble states that “armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest. According to the second article member nations must “refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations.”
The UN Security Council never authorized the use of force against Iraq by the U.S. During a 2004 interview with the BBC, then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan answered “yes” when asked if the war in Iraq was illegal. He stated, “I have indicated it is not in conformity with the UN Charter, from our point of view, and from the Charter point of view it was illegal.”
During a September 2004 press briefing in New York Fred Eckhard spokesman for Annan, said, “He has…used the words 'not in conformity with the Charter' to describe his view of the Iraq war.” Eckhard added, “His purposes in establishing the UN panel on change was to look at the question of preventive war and try to bring that in conformity with the Charter principles, which do not promote preventive war.”
Retired international law professor Richard Falk characterized the Bush administration’s push to invade Iraq in 2002 as violating the “spirit and letter of the U.S. Constitution” and violating the UN Charter. As Henry Kissinger stated, “The notion of justified pre-emption runs counter to modern international law, which sanctions the use of force in self-defense only against actual not potential threats.”
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