The transcript shows that Bush consciously intended to go to war without a United Nations Security Council resolution. The United Nations Charter, to which the United States is a treaty signatory (so that it has the force of American law), forbids any nation to launch an aggressive war on another country. ~Prof. Cole
This is all true, but then we have known this to be true since the spring of 2003. Of course he intended to go to war without a U.N. Security Council resolution that authorised it. He and his supporters essentially admitted as much at the time (all those pro-administration pundits spinning far-fetched theories about “punishing” Iraq for violating the Gulf War ceasefire and 17 or however many U.N. resolutions weren’t just talking for their health), and they bragged about their steely-eyed resolve when they said it. I suppose it doesn’t hurt to have the war’s illegality confirmed for all to see. Still, if the spineless Congress can’t bring itself to defend the Constitution, what makes us believe that it will hold the executive accountable for breaking other laws?
Prof. Cole also points to a story about how the war could have been avoided with Hussein going into exile. He is rightly angry that Mr. Bush launched the war anyway when it might have been avoided, but then the war was always unnecessary. It wasn’t just unnecessary because Hussein was apparently willing to go into exile. It was unnecessary because there was no cause for war.
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September 27th, 2007 at 10:25 am
Ashish George
That story about the possibility of exile is pretty amazing. Has Bush been reading from a script? Did he really say “Maybe it’s because he’s dark-skinned, far away and Muslim, lots of Europeans think everything’s okay with him”? I’m not sure how much skepticism is required any more.
September 27th, 2007 at 11:05 am
Roach
Let’s be realistic, though, Saddam was a world class bullshitter and if he went into exile would have probably cancelled at last minute, returned in triumph like Arafat in Gaza, or otherwise caused us problems. Bush is an idiot, but this myopic focus on the UN and exile and what not is kind of silly and pointless.
September 27th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
Daniel Larison
Yes, he might have called off the deal at the last minute. There’s no guarantee that it would have prevented the war and removed Hussein from power. I also agree that there’s no point to talking about the U.N. Charter and schemes to prevent war when Congress won’t even insist on its appropriate role in the decision to go to war. If a government won’t even respect its own fundamental law, what are the chances it will respect its treaty obligations? This item was interesting to the extent that it revealed a little more of the man’s thinking prior to the invasion. There’s nothing very surprising about it, but it’s interesting to have another part of the story.
If the quote about Europeans is accurate, it is doubly bizarre, since the Europeans are much closer to Iraq than we are and not all that “far away.” It seems that he may have been projecting whatever it is that he thinks his opponents back home believe onto Europeans.