[ExI] Manning and Assange

[Stefano Vaj]

On 25 August 2012 22:27, Jeff Davis <jrd1415 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Regarding the legality of the invasion of Iraq: I am of the opinion
> that Bush/Cheney intended to remove Saddam even before 911 gave them
> the pretext, and that a close inspection of the laws appertaining --
> Sovereignty clause and UN Charter -- show the entire business to have
> been unlawful.  I would add that, in my view, the same legal basis for
> the assessing the criminal nature of the invasion itself also indicts
> every member of Congress who voted in favor of the AUMF and follow-on
> war funding, and for every member of the US Military who participated
> in the war (they take an oath to defend the Constitution, ie act
> lawfully).
>
> Finally, at long last, after Vietnam and now, years later Iraq,
> Afghanistan, and the GWOT, I am an old man (inner child
> notwithstanding).  I have come to the conclusion that the  law is
> overwhelmed by war and swept away.  Replaced by a frightening
> lawlessness that whispers the true nature of... leadership.
>

According to the time-honoured tradition of international law, wars are for
sovereign states ultimately discretionary, and they are only bound to
respect a few customary and conventional rules during their course.

It *is* however internationally (besides possibly internally) illegal to
wage war without declaring it, or to pretend that the operations are not
acts war but of military reprisals or international policing, or to breach
war laws, or to interfere with the internal business of another foreign
state.

-- 
Stefano Vaj
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