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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (151348)	11/10/2004 8:42:27 AM
From: Michael Watkins	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

"There are only two ways that war can be justified legally - one is self-defence, the other is through a Security Council resolution. Exactly. The US was not being threatened. Resolution 1441 had not been amended nor superceded. The Security Council did not issue a new resolution using any of the actions outlined in Chapter 7 of the UN Charter. But there have actually been quite a lot of Security Council resolutions on Iraq and if you add them together, or even if you only look at 1441, you could assume legitimacy because Iraq is still in non-compliance with the various objections placed on it. As the article says, this would be a matter of great debate and as one proponent says, most experts (I assure you I can find more that will argue it was illegal than not) - and the UN itself - lean to the side of deeming the US action illegal. But more simply than that, any layman given the timeline can conclude it was illegal. - Resolution 1441 issued - Iraq complies - in some ways readily, in some ways not, but consistent with on-going negotiation, progress is demonstrable and is achieving the ultimate goals desired of 1441 - Iraq's "full disclosure" document is delivered. There is great debate about the completeness of this. Inspectors have reservations about the accuracy but insist that all they need is more time. Inspectors, and the UN / IAEA, are willing to proceed based on this. - Bush cuts the inspection / verification process off at the knees, orders Annan to remove all UN inspectors, and goes to war. Sniff test: Bush wanted to go to war, illegal or not.