Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 15. november 2004 / Timeline November 15, 2004
Version 3.514. November 2004, 16. November 2004
11/15/2004
A War Crime in Real Time: Obliterating Fallujah
By Francis A. Boyle
The obliteration of Fallujah continues apace. Article 6(b) of the
1945 Nuremberg Charter defines a Nuremberg War Crime in relevant
part as the ". . . wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages.
. ." According to this definitive definition, the Bush Jr.
administration's destruction of Fallujah constitutes a war crime
for which Nazis were tried and executed. There is nothing
surprising about that.
Since the Bush Jr. administration's installation in power by the
United States Supreme Court in January of 2001, the peoples of the
world have witnessed a government in the United States of America
that has demonstrated little if any respect for fundamental
considerations of international law, international organizations,
and human rights, let alone appreciation of the requirements for
maintaining international peace and security. What the world has
watched instead is a comprehensive and malicious assault upon the
integrity of the international legal order by a group of men and
women who are thoroughly Machiavellian in their perception of
international relations and in their conduct of both foreign policy
and domestic affairs. This is not simply a question of giving or
withholding the benefit of the doubt when it comes to complicated
matters of foreign affairs and defense policies to a U.S.
government charged with the security of both its own citizens and
those of its allies in Europe, the Western Hemisphere, and the
Pacific. Rather, the Bush Jr. administration's foreign policy
constitutes ongoing criminal activity under well-recognized
principles of both international law and U.S. domestic law, in
particular the Nuremberg Charter, the Nuremberg Judgment, and the
Nuremberg Principles. So their obliteration of Fallujah was to be
expected.
One generation ago the peoples of the world asked themselves: Where
were the "good" Germans? Well, there were some good Germans. The
Lutheran theologian and pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer was the foremost
exemplar of someone who led a life of principled opposition to the
Nazi-terror state even unto death.
Today the peoples of the world are likewise asking themselves:
Where are the "good" Americans? Well, there are some good
Americans. Like three Catholic Nuns in Denver, they are getting
arrested and going to jail for protesting against United States
weapons of mass destruction (WMD) whose power for human
extermination far exceeds even the wildest fantasies of Hitler and
the Nazis. Or else for protesting against illegal U.S.. military
interventions around the world. Just recently the Nuclear Resister
estimated that since the Fall of 2002, there have been more than
9,500 anti-war related arrests in the United States alone. Many
more will be coming.
In international legal terms, the Bush Jr. administration itself
should now be viewed as constituting an ongoing criminal conspiracy
under international criminal law in violation of the Nuremberg
Charter, the Nuremberg Judgment, and the Nuremberg Principles, due
to its formulation and undertaking of aggressive war policies that
are legally akin to those perpetrated by the Nazi regime. As a
consequence, American citizens possess the basic right under
international law and the United States domestic law, including the
U.S. Constitution, to engage in acts of non-violent civil
resistance in order to prevent, impede, thwart, or terminate
ongoing criminal activities perpetrated by U.S. government
officials in their conduct of foreign affairs policies and military
operations purported to relate to defense and
counter-terrorism.
This same right of civil resistance extends pari passu to all
citizens of the world community of states. Everyone around the
world has both the right and the duty under international law to
resist ongoing criminal activities perpetrated by the Bush Jr.
administration and its nefarious foreign accomplices such as Blair,
Berlusconi, Howard, Koizumi, Kwasniewski, etc. by all non-violent
means possible. If it is not so restrained, the Bush Jr.
administration could very well precipitate a Third World War.
The time for preventive action is now. Civil resistance is the way
to go. People power can overcome power politics. Popular movements
have succeeded in toppling tyrannical, dictatorial and
authoritarian regimes throughout former Communist countries in
Eastern Europe, as well as in Asia, and most recently in Latin
America. It is time once again to exercise People Power here in the
United States of America: "When in the Course of human Events. . .
We hold these Truths to be self-evident. . . . we mutually pledge
to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and sacred Honor."
Despite the best efforts by the Bush Jr. Leaguers to the contrary,
we American Citizens still have our First Amendment Rights: Freedom
of Speech, Freedom of Association, Freedom of Assembly, Freedom to
Petition our Government for the Redress of these massive
Grievances, Civil Resistance, etc. We are going to have to start
vigorously exercising all of our First Amendment Rights right now.
We must use them or else, as the saying goes, we will lose them. We
must act not only for the good of the Peoples of Southwest Asia,
but for our future, that of our children, that of our nation as a
democratic society committed to the Rule of Law and the U.S.
Constitution. The Nazis had their "homeland" too.
Francis A. Boyle, Professor of Law, University of Illinois,
is author of Foundations of World Order, Duke University Press, The
Criminality of Nuclear Deterrence, and Palestine, Palestinians and
International Law, by Clarity Press.
He can be reached at: FBOYLE@LAW.UIUC.EDU
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