Iraq Peace Team Briefings are intended to isolate and explore the subtleties of the larger anti-war / anti-sanctions argument.

Addressing an enthusiastic crowd of West Point Military Academy graduates on June 1, 2002, George W. Bush declared, “Our security will require all Americans to be forward-looking and resolute, to be ready for preemptive action when necessary to defend our liberty and to defend our lives." The crowd roared.

Bush was thinking about Iraq that morning. He was not thinking about international law.

"The Bush administration’s apparent resolve to wage war against Iraq, tempered for the moment by conservative critics...disregards the prohibitions on the use of force that are set forth in the UN Charter and
accepted as binding rules of international law." Or so says Richard Falk, Professor Emeritus of International Law and Policy at Princeton University.[1]

Bush administration hawk Richard Perle disagrees. "I don't believe it does violate international law. We certainly have the right, not conferred, but acknowledged in the United Nations Charter, Article 51, to defend ourselves." [2]

It is true that Article 51 supports the "right of individual or collective self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security."[3] But Iraq has not attacked America, nor is there evidence that it intends to. There is no case for self-defense.

Again, Richard Falk: "Article 2 of the UN Charter states: 'All Members shall 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.' "[4]

Among the United Nations most important achievements has been the development of a body of international law. The United Nations Charter specifically calls on the United Nations to help in the settlement of international disputes by peaceful means.

Phyllis Bennis, a researcher at the Institute for Policy Studies and a longtime critic of Washington's misuse and outright disregard for the United Nations, wrote recently, "Some administration spokespeople are fond of a sound-bite that says 'the UN Charter is not a suicide pact.' Others like to remind us that Iraq (and other nations) routinely violate the Charter. Both statements are true. But the United States has not been attacked by Iraq, and there is simply no evidence that Iraq is anywhere close to being able to carry out such an attack. The U.S. is the strongest international power - in terms of global military reach, economic, cultural, diplomatic and political power - that has ever existed throughout history. If the United States does not recognize the UN Charter and international law as the foundation of global society, how can we expect others to do so? "

"When it comes to policy on Iraq," Bennis says, "the U.S. has a history of sidelining the central role that should be played by the United Nations. This increasingly unilateralist trajectory is one of the main reasons for the growing international antagonism towards the U.S. By imposing its will on the Security Council - insisting on the continuation of economic sanctions when virtually every other country wants to lift them, announcing its intention to ignore the UN in deciding whether to go to war against Iraq - the U.S. isolates us from our allies, antagonizes our friends, and sets our nation apart from the international systems of laws that govern the rest of the world. This does not help, but rather undermines, our long-term security interests."[5]

Sources:

1. No War Against Iraq, by Richard Falk and David Krieger
2. Striking First, News Hour With Jim Lehrer, July 1, 2002.
3. Charter of the United Nations, Chapter VII, Article 51
4. Charter of the United Nations, Chapter I, Article 2, Paragraph 4
5. Testimony Prepared for Hearings on Iraq Policy, by Phyllis Bennis

This briefing was prepared by Jeff Guntzel [August 27, 2002]. Email comments or corrections to jeff@vitw.org.