Newsgroup: it.politica.pds
Titolo: Aggressive War: Supreme International Crime

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/110904A.shtml
  Aggressive War: Supreme International Crime 
    By Marjorie Cohn 
    t r u t h o u t | Perspective 
    Tuesday 09 November 2004 
    Associate United States Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson was
the chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg Tribunal. In his report to the
State Department, Justice Jackson wrote: "No political or economic
situation can justify" the crime of aggression. He also said: "If
certain acts in violation of treaties are crimes they are crimes
whether the United States does them or whether Germany does them, and
we are not prepared to lay down a rule of criminal conduct against
others which we would not be willing to have invoked against us." 
    Between 10,000 and 15,000 U.S. troops with warplanes and artillery
have begun to invade the Iraqi city of Fallujah. To "soften up" the
rebels, American forces dropped five 500-pound bombs on "insurgent
targets." The Americans destroyed the Nazzal Emergency Hospital in the
center of town. They stormed and occupied the Fallujah General
Hospital, and have not agreed to allow doctors and ambulances go
inside the main part of the city to help the wounded, in direct
violation of the Geneva Conventions. 
    The battle of Fallujah promises to be far more shocking and aweful
than the bombardment of Baghdad that kicked off Operation "Iraqi
Freedom" in April 2003. A senior Marine Corps surgeon warned that
casualties will surpass any level seen since the Vietnam War. 
    There have already been 100,000 "excess" Iraqi deaths since Bush
launched his first strike on Iraq 18 months ago - that is, above and
beyond those killed by Saddam Hussein, sanctions, U.S. bombings, and
disease, all put together, in the 15 months prior to the invasion. 
    A study published by the Lancet found that the risk of death by
violence for Iraqi civilians is now 58 times higher than before Bush
began to liberate them in April 2003. 
    Bush's war on Iraq is a war of aggression. "Aggression is the use
of armed force by a state against the sovereignty, territorial
integrity or political independence of another state, or in any other
manner inconsistent with the Charter of the United Nations, as set out
in this definition," according to General Assembly Resolution 3314,
passed in the wake of Vietnam. 
    The only two situations where the UN Charter permits the use of
armed force against another state is in self-defense, or when
authorized by the Security Council. Iraq had not invaded the U.S., or
any other country, Iraq did not constitute an imminent threat to any
country, and the Security Council never sanctioned Bush's war. Bush
and the officials in his administration are committing the crime of
aggression. 
    Virtually every Western democracy has ratified the treaty of the
International Criminal Court, except the United States. Bush knows
that the Court will eventually prosecute leaders for the crime of
aggression. Mindful that he and his officials could become defendants,
Bush renounced the Court, and extracted bilateral immunity agreements
from more than 80 countries. 
    This year, however, Bush unsuccessfully sought to ram through the
Security Council an immunity resolution that would exempt U.S.
personnel from the Court's jurisdiction. But shortly after the
photographs of U.S. torture of Iraqi prisoners emerged, the Council
refused to put its imprimatur on preferential treatment for the United
States. 
    Bush knows that the Court will also punish war crimes. Pursuant to
policies promulgated by Bush and Rumsfeld, U.S. forces have engaged in
widespread torture and inhuman treatment of prisoners in Iraq,
Afghanistan, and Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Bush admitted in his 2003 State
of the Union address that he had sanctioned summary executions of
suspected terrorists. 
    Torture, inhuman treatment, and willful killing are grave breaches
of the Geneva Conventions, treaties ratified by the United States.
Grave breaches of Geneva are considered war crimes under our federal
War Crimes Act of 1996. American nationals who commit war crimes
abroad can receive life in prison, or even the death penalty if the
victim dies. Under the doctrine of command responsibility, a commander
can be held liable if he knew or should have known his inferiors were
committing war crimes and he failed to prevent or stop them. 
    The first U.S. attack on Fallujah, last April, killed 900-1000
people, mostly noncombatants. It was conducted in retaliation for the
killing and mutilation of the bodies of four Blackwater Security
Consulting mercenaries. Collective punishment against an occupied
population for offenses committed by others also violates the Geneva
Conventions. 
    Bush has sought to cover his crimes by putting an Iraqi face on
his brutal war. The New York Times reported: "Thousands of Iraqi
troops have moved into position with their American counterparts and
are expected to take part ... American soldiers are to do most of the
fighting on the way in, clearing the way for the Iraqi security forces
to take control once the insurgents are defeated. With this method,
Iraqi and American leaders hope for the best of both worlds: American
muscle and an Iraqi face." 
    If Bush were a student of history, he would realize that
Iraqization, like Vietnamization, will fail to win the hearts and
minds of the Iraqi people. 
    Working hand-in-glove with the U.S. government, interim puppet
prime minister Iyad Allawi helped to soften up the rebels by declaring
martial law throughout most of Iraq. His authority came from
legislation the human rights minister characterized as "very similar
to the Patriot Act of the United States." It enables Allawi to conduct
extensive surveillance, impose cordons and curfews, limit freedom of
movement and association, and freeze bank accounts and seize assets. 
    "Iraqi confidence in the interim government has plummeted in
recent months as the insurgency in Falluja and elsewhere has gained in
strength and lethality," according to The New York Times. 
    And although foreign Islamic extremists have joined the fight,
most resisting the American occupation are Iraqi. "Didn't the
Americans bring with them the British and the Italians?" asked Suhail
al Abdali. "Well, we have multinational forces, too," he said wryly.
Then al Abdali added, "They will pay the price with the blood of
American sons who came to occupy Iraq. They won't take Fallujah unless
they fight street to street, house to house." 
    Twenty-six prominent Saudi scholars and preachers wrote in an open
letter to the Iraqi people: "The U.S. forces are still destroying
towns on the heads of their people and killing women and children.
What's going on in Iraq is a result of the big crime of America's
occupation of Iraq." They stressed that armed attacks by militant
Iraqi groups on U.S. troops and their allies in Iraq represent
"legitimate resistance." 
    "The attack on Fallujah is an illegal and illegitimate action
against civilians and innocent people," said the Association of Muslim
Scholars, an influential Sunni clerics group. "We denounce this
operation which will have a grave consequence on the situation in
Iraq," declared spokesman Mohammed Bashar al-Faidhi. 
    Baghdad University political science professor Salman al-Jumaili
warns, "What happens in Fallujah will spread out across other Sunni
cities, including Baghdad." Al-Jumaili expects the Fallujah offensive
will spin out of control, with fighting hop-scotching from one town to
the next. 
    A senior U.S. diplomat agrees. "I would never tell you that
violence in Sunni areas won't get worse when you open up a battle," he
told the Los Angeles Times, on condition of anonymity. 
    Following the Holocaust, the International Military Tribunal at
Nuremberg called the waging of aggressive war "essentially an evil
thing . . . to initiate a war of aggression . . . is not only an
international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing
only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the
accumulated evil of the whole." 
    Bush's aggressive war against the people of Iraq promises to kill
many more American soldiers and untold numbers of Iraqis. Nuremberg
prosecutor Justice Jackson labeled the crime of aggression "the
greatest menace of our times." More than 50 years later, his words
still ring true. 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Marjorie Cohn, a contributing editor to t r u t h o u t, is a
professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, executive vice president
of the National Lawyers Guild, and the U.S. representative to the
executive committee of the American Association of Jurists. 
  -------
  Jump to TO Features for Tuesday November 9, 2004    

 
 Ies
--------------------------------
Inviato via 
http://arianna.libero.it/usenet/