Yeah, I forgot, Kofi Annan is President and Chief Justice of the Entire World.
This may be news to you but the UN is not a world government and no reasonable person thinks it is. Did you vote for Kofi Annan? I didn't. How many of the governments represented at the UN are even democratic? How many of them represent the will of their people?
When Kofi Annan says that something is "illegal" he's talking rubbish. What he is actually saying is that according to part of the UN the United States government has violated the terms of a treaty. First, that's hardly the final word on the subject. Second, treaties are not sovereign over elected legislatures. The United States congress gave the Administration power to go to war and that is the final word on that. There is no higher authority in the world than a nation's elected legislature. If the Congress determined that the war was illegal they could simply cut off the money. They haven't. Neither has the Supreme Court intervened. So, in fact, all the parties who have standing to claim that the war is illegal had their opportunity to speak and nobody has said the war is illegal.
Obviously it is a serious problem that Bush did not satisfy the requirements of the resolution to use force and that he deceived the Congress and the UN. I worked very hard for a Presidential candidate and other politicians who opposed the war. (Okay, I also worked for Kerry, but I knew that was a mistake from the start. I couldn't even bring myself to vote for him, the worthless bastard.). But what cannot be said is that this war is illegal. What's so appalling about the Democrats is that they blessed this corrupt venture with their votes and made it inarguably legal. Then they screwed up so badly (although we won both the state I was working in and the state where I live) in 2004 by not opposing the war that they got Bush re-elected (thus nailing the coffin on the legality of the war) AND made themselves look like idiots for having to contradict themselves now that the country is demanding they oppose the war.
I have put in my time on the Iraq issue and I tell you it is no good making baseless, ill-considered claims of illegality. The American people are responsible for this war and they have to face up to that.
boddi
On 11/27/05, Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> wrote:
> boddi satva lbo.boddi at gmail.com
> Sun Nov 27 15:53:20 PST 2005
> <snip>
> > The argument that the war in Iraq is "illegal" can be dismissed out
> > of hand. The presence of troops in Iraq is CLEARLY the will of both
> > the duly-elected administration and the duly-elected legislature.
>
> That an action was taken by "the duly-elected administration and the
> duly-elected legislature" doesn't necessarily make it legal, however,
> in domestic or foreign policy. If it did, we wouldn't need any
> independent judiciary that reviews actions taken by either.
>
> The UN charter was ratified by the duly elected government of the
> United States in 1945. So, the United States is a signatory to it.
> The duly elected George W. Bush administration and Congress violated
> the UN charter.
>
> <blockquote>Iraq war was illegal and breached UN charter, says Annan
>
> Ewen MacAskill and Julian Borger in Washington
> Thursday September 16, 2004
> The Guardian
>
> The United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, declared explicitly
> for the first time last night that the US-led war on Iraq was illegal.
>
> Mr Annan said that the invasion was not sanctioned by the UN security
> council or in accordance with the UN's founding charter. In an
> interview with the BBC World Service broadcast last night, he was
> asked outright if the war was illegal. He replied: "Yes, if you wish."
>
> He then added unequivocally: "I have indicated it was not in
> conformity with the UN charter. From our point of view and from the
> charter point of view it was illegal."
>
> <http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1305709,00.html></
> blockquote>
>
> Lawrence Mosqueda, "A Duty to Disobey All Unlawful Orders," <http://
> electroniciraq.net/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/6/265>.
>
> Yoshie Furuhashi
> <http://montages.blogspot.com>
> <http://monthlyreview.org>
> <http://mrzine.org>
>
>
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>