OT; afghan war illegal?

[WTE_Galway]

Originally Posted by DroopSnoot

and why was Iraq illegal?

Generally the 2003 Iraq invasion is seen as illegal and the Afghanistan invasion is seen as legitimate.

If you want to get technical about it, its impossible for any military action by the United States to be declared "illegal" in the United Nations as the US has veto power in the security council. Any attempt to declare a US military action illegal can simply be vetoed by the US.

On the other hand, if the 2003 invasion had been conducted by anyone other than a security council member with veto powers, the action would likely have been denounced as illegal as regime change is NOT a legitimate reason for invasion and the other claimed reason (WMD) was a fabrication based on suspect testimony gathered mainly from sources connected with Iran. Basically the Bush administration decided to invade and then went looking for legal loopholes to make the invasion legitimate.

[Oldschool61]

Originally Posted by WTE_Galway

Generally the 2003 Iraq invasion is seen as illegal and the Afghanistan invasion is seen as legitimate.

If you want to get technical about it, its impossible for any military action by the United States to be declared "illegal" in the United Nations as the US has veto power in the security council. Any attempt to declare a US military action illegal can simply be vetoed by the US.

On the other hand, if the 2003 invasion had been conducted by anyone other than a security council member with veto powers, the action would likely have been denounced as illegal as regime change is NOT a legitimate reason for invasion and the other claimed reason (WMD) was a fabrication based on suspect testimony gathered mainly from sources connected with Iran. Basically the Bush administration decided to invade and then went looking for legal loopholes to make the invasion legitimate.

Bush and Cheney should have been arrested for war crimes!!

[SlipBall]

Originally Posted by Oldschool61

Bush and Cheney should have been arrested for war crimes!!

Seems like an odd statement

[Nephris]

Iraq was an attack war on wrong arguments (nuclear weapons ...) give nto the public. Thus the war in Iraq was and is in general understoodment and due the rights of Den Haag (?) an illegal movement towards an independant state (one can think about Iraq and Saddam what ya want).

For the same reason Serbia was called guilty and its leaders were arrested.
In a perfect world Bush & Cheyney should be send to the court in Den Haag.
For the same reason Wehrmacht generals like Manstein were send for 10 yrs to prison, although this last comparison is a kind of flawed, as several other
charges were made also, next for leading the attack war ( imho it was a preventive attack into the east, but my opinion doesnt count here)


At the end a reason for the antipathie towards US in the past years compared to the years before.

My opinion:
Hang the cowboy high.

[bugmenot]

Originally Posted by SlipBall

Seems like an odd statement

From a pure theoretically POV, not really. Conventions that prohibit war crimes (like the Geneva ones 1949) have been recognised by the ICJ as erga omnes. It means they must be respected by any country, whether it has ratified or not those conventions. And, the different statuses of international tribunals (like the ICC, Nuremberg tribunals, ICTY, etc) include the international penal responsibility of individuals (including head of state) when it comes to that kind of violations : war crimes, genocide, crimes against peace...

Of course, in reality, Bush and Cheney have nothing to worry about. Unlike African or Eastern Europe dictators.

That's the way it is.