Comments for Honesty in Iraq at http://www.pacificfreepress.com , comment 1 to 1 out of 1 comments http://www.pacificfreepress.com Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:48:09 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.pacificfreepress.com/news/1/371-honesty-in-iraq.html#comment-268 Yes indeed, before one lets slip the dogs of war, special care should be taken to mark off the applicable international law checklist (honestly): Clear threat of imminent attack? All available diplomatic steps exhausted to deter it? Military actions taken that are reasonable and only proportionate to eliminating the underlying threat? Appropriate measures in place to minimize collateral damage, avert humanitarian crisis in the aftermath, and make timely reparations for inevitable errors? The US invasion of Iraq flunks all four steps. Afghanistan comes close, although I wonder if Colin Powell now looks back to the Taliban's offer to send Osama bin Laden off to exile in some neutral country was a diplomatic overture tragically squandered. In any event, little George, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Wolfowitz and a half dozen other top decision makers clearly violate the Nuremburg war of aggression standard. So Mr. Swanson is right. What's the remedy? I find it hard to believe waging an war illegal under international law - but nonetheless backed by bi-partisan authorization of both the House and Senate - can be considered a "high crime or misdemeanor" under the Constitution. Unless impeachment is based on the torture/rendition and NSA domestic wiretapping programs, there is no meaningful remedy available until after 2008, unless one or more of these figures foolishly gets snatched up while traveling abroad like Pinochet. It's pretty obvious the Baker Commission's upcoming range of so-called responsible options are calculated to extend the US occupation into the 2008 campaign season, and finesse the Democrats into dividing internally and again giving this half baked dream of empire a renewed veneer of bipartisan support. If the Democratic Party is going to gain anything from the last election cycle, the legislative tactic should focus upon defunding the construction work on the Green Zone embassy compound and the military base network. One last point to ponder: is it possible for a bad war launched for illegitimate reasons to somehow evolve into a morally redeeming enterprize with the passage of time? This seems to me to be what Bush, the beltway wise men, and the main stream pundits are now floundering towards, ie., we may have done wrong, but we'll set things right (and avert a worser bloodbath). The only historical analogy I can come up with was the northern cause in the American Civil War. What began with the goal of holding together the union gradually evolved into a campaign to abolish slavery. But I just can't see a silver lining for anybody in Mesopotamia from here. - Bill from Saginaw Mon, 04 Dec 2006 23:19:02 +0100