The Iraq War retrospective Thread

[Jester]

Although, Res 1441 is unclear as to when, who, and how a material breech is determined, and then whom would deliver the serious consequences.

Who did you think they meant would enforce 1441? Chuck Norris? The Harlem Globetrotters? The Security Council is the sole body with this authority. This is not a confusing issue.

You read that to mean that Res. 1441 was meaningless drivel, and the Bush administration read that to mean that Saddam continued frustration of weapons inspections and lack of cooperation, not meeting deadlines and obfuscation was a material breach.

Even stipulating that this interpretation is true, it does not change the basic facts of authority. The Security Council, not the United States, had the authority to decide whether Iraq was in material breach, and what to do about that. Again, this is not ambiguous.

They also presented this point at the security council when trying to get the UN to commit to having a spine and following though on its "threat" of "serious consequences". They did not.

Turns out, the UN was right. Iraq was not in material breach, they had no relevant WMD, and their "obfuscation" was apparently for trivial reasons. If having a spine means declaring wars without good reason, then I think I'll go with spineless.

The US made its case on how Iraq was threatening them (true threat or not, they made the case), and then acted in accordance with the UN charter to defend themselves from the percieved hostile threat.

So, all you have to do is make a case (true or not) that another country is a threat to you, and you can then declare war on them without the UN or anyone else giving their permission? This is certainly a novel interpretation of the charter. A more obvious one would be the interpretation that you must actually be attacked before you can invade another country to defend yourself.

I would add, the only thing scarier than an illegal war, is a legal one. It reminds me of the Vatican's decrees on just and unjust war.

I have no idea what you mean by this, but from where I sit, illegal war looks a lot scarier than legal war.

-Jester