 |
 |
|
|
|
|
Fox News Commentator Bill O'Reilly - who thinks the Constitution guarantees the right to be homosexual and kill your children - loves to bash religious conservatives. But Mr. O'Reilly has blundered his way into the same mistaken position that well-known Christian leader Pat Robertson has expressed on the 700 Club. Both Messrs. O'Reilly and Robertson think the U.S. will be in violation of International Law in going to war with Iraq if the U.S. does not find evidence of weapons of mass destruction. Mr. O'Reilly really shouldn't be blamed for his ignorance of International Law, after all, he couldn't get in to law school. But Mr. Robertson, a Yale Law grad, ought to know better. The truth is the U.S. is justified in waging war against Iraq whether or not we discover weapons of mass destruction under several provisions of International Law. First, since 1991 a continuous state of war has existed between the U.S. and Iraq because Iraq failed to comply with the provisions of the Gulf War Cease Fire Agreement, U.N. Security Council Resolution 687. U.S. military action was properly authorized by Congress under the provisions of the War Powers Resolution, an authority that remains in force because of Iraq's failure to comply with the cease fire. 687 required Iraq to voluntarily disarm within 45 days. We know it did not because of the findings of UNSCOM, booted out of Iraq in 1998. Second, Iraq's foiled attempt to assasinate the elder President Bush constitutes an act of war that gives the U.S. independent authority to wage war under International Law and Article 51 of the U.N. charter. Third, Iraqi payments to the family members of Palestinian suicide bombers constitute an act of war against our ally Israel. Then there's Saddam's treatment of his own people, which justifies deposing him on humanitarian grounds. All of these justifications existed when the U.S. Congress voted overwhelmingly to approve military action in Fall, 2002. And this vote occurred before the passage of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1441, the 17th resolution requiring Saddam to disarm. As the President stated, the U.S. is acting in its own self defense, not on the basis of Security Council Resolution 1441. We are acting to remove a dictator who has developed weapons of mass destruction and used them on his own people as well as his enemies, and who has acted to attack the U.S. already, and never complied with a cease fire agreement with us. There is simply no obligation on the U.S. to produce new evidence of any kind. The evidence is already there for all to see. |
|