[lbo-talk] Iraq war "clearer" to Americans than WW 2

[loupaulsen at attbi.com]

Newman writes:
> And Iraq is ultimately under the authority of the United Nations Charter and
> national security council.  You oddly reflect the Americanist assumption
> that "national sovereignty" is fully preserved despite a nation signing the
> United Nations treaty.

The NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL? :-) A revealing slip? :-)

How come Iraq is under the authority of the United Nations Charter?  The U.S. 
isn't.  The UN is irrelevant, haven't you heard?  Gandhi once said 
that "western civilization" "would be a good idea."  Aren't we now at the 
stage where "international law would be a good idea"?  What you call 
the "Americanist assumption" is more than an assumption.  The U.N. Charter was 
a scrap of paper a month ago.  Now it is a scrap of paper which has been used 
for latrine purposes.  Any government that considers itself bound by the U.N. 
Charter now is a government of dupes and fools.  Law that restrains only the 
powerless and not the powerful has no moral force, and, if you think about it, 
no practical force either.

LP