America Will Rue the Day

"No political or economic situation can justify the crime of aggression....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."

Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson
Chief Prosecutor at the Nuremberg Tribunal (1945-46)


My friends, these are dreadful days. I just turned off the TV after hearing an "optimistic" news report that the gruesome attack on Fallujah is going "better than expected." Hurrah for us!

The United States is carrying out an illegal war of aggression against a helpless country. We have murdered at least 100,000 Iraqi civilians and now seek to increase that number, not intentionally, of course. Oh, no. As Rumsfeld would say, stuff happens. The collateral damage is regretful. Bush has refused to join the International Criminal Court for obvious reasons. He knows he is a war criminal, and who would purposely join a court where you might be the first defendant? You'd have to be crazy.

Bush has gone further in asking the Security Council at the UN to pass an immunity resolution that would exempt US personnel from the Court's jurisdiction, essentially giving us preferential treatment as we spread violence, torture, and devastation in the middle east. Not surprisingly, the UN declined. American troops are violating the Geneva Conventions every day. Under our own War Crimes Act of 1996, we are violating international law on a regular basis. Americans who commit war crimes abroad can receive life in prison or even the death penalty if the victim dies. A commander can be held liable if he knew or should have known his inferiors were committing war crimes.

The first US attack on Fallujah last April killed 900-1000 people, mostly noncombatants. It was conducted in retaliation for the deaths of four American mercenaries. Collective punishment against an occupied population for offenses committed by others also violates the Geneva Conventions.

Bush and his war leaders hope to make this latest brutal attack look like an Iraqi operation. His brilliant idea is to have Americans do most of the fighting on the way in and then have the Iraqi forces take control after the insurgents are defeated. Do you think Bush's plan will work? Will this be seen as an Iraqi military action? Of course, not.

Interim puppet Iyad Allawi, our thug in Baghdad, is working with the US government by declaring martial law in Iraq, established through what has been described as an Iraqi "Patriot Act." It means that Allawi is free to conduct extensive surveillance, impose curfews, limit freedom of movement and association, freeze bank accounts and seize assets. [Hey, wait a minute! This is similar to our Patriot Act? Are we aware of this?]

There is one catch. Iraqis don't like us. The NYT reports that Iraqi confidence in the interim government has plummeted recently. The fact remains that, although Bush will not admit it, most resistance is coming from Iraqi citizens, not foreign extremists. One Iraqi leader, Suhail al Abdali, has said Americans will pay the price with the blood of American sons who came to occupy Iraq.

Bush's aggressive war against the people of Iraq promises certain death for many more American soldiers and untold numbers of Iraqis. Nuremberg prosecutor Justice Jackson's words still ring true today. Sadly, it is the United States of America that is committing the unspeakable crimes, not the Nazis.

Hanging on a wooden cross, Jesus forgave those who crucified him. He said, "They know not what they do." Do we not know what we are doing? Will we be forgiven?

[Click on the blog title to read the article, "Aggressive War: Supreme International Crime," by Marjorie Cohn.]