But surely those attacks were illegal not legal attacks during a war. If your analogy is correct then it would seem drone attacks are also illegal whether or not they are equivalent to air raids not within a war. Of course the concept of the war on terror is stretched beyond belief. The war on terror is not a war at all but is called such in order to justify applying concepts that do have application within a war.
Cheers, k hanly
Blog: http://kenthink7.blogspot.com/index.html Blog: http://kencan7.blogspot.com/index.html
--- On Wed, 7/15/09, Wojtek Sokolowski <swsokolowski at yahoo.com> wrote:
> From: Wojtek Sokolowski <swsokolowski at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Query re legal status of drone attacks
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Date: Wednesday, July 15, 2009, 2:14 PM
>
>
>
> --- On Wed, 7/15/09, ken hanly <northsunm at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
>
>
> > Air raids are typically on the territory of a
> > country you are at war with or are occupying and
> fighting a
> > resistance as in Afghanistan. But drone attacks such
> as that
> > in Yemen or Pakistan do not fit that model.
>
>
> [WS:] The US was not at war with Syria when it carried its
> air raid in 1986. Israel was not at war with Iraq,
> when it bombed its nuclear reactor in 1981, nor was it at
> war with Syria when it carried an air raid against its
> nuclear facility in 2007. I do not think bombing of
> Yugoslavia was accompanied by a formal declaration of war,
> albeit it received UN sanctions.
>
> All these were acts of war and they were reciprocated by
> covert action, as the attacked countries lacked the capacity
> to carry air raids against the US or Israel, or even to
> shoot down the enemy aircraft. However, the situation
> would have been drastically different in case of an
> attempted raid against, say Russia - but I doubt that Russia
> would go to a full blown war beyond downing the invading
> aircraft and making political stink in the UN.
>
> The bottom line is that these are acts of war, although
> they typically do not escalate to a formal declaration of
> war.
>
> Wojtek
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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>