As I run Model United Nations conferences, I feel should point out several things:
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it's called democracy D-E-M-O-C-R-A-C-Y if we don't care about the opinion of the majority, we live in a dictatorship. Good idea to fight dictatorships by applying the principles of dictatorship.
It's not democracy. Any person studying political science knows that international politics is an anarchy. There is no leader, and each state can do whatever it wants. If for some reason Seychelles attacked Madagascar, there's no one to say it's "illegal" or not allowed.
The United Nations isn't a governing body. It's a glorified gentlemen's club where state's express their opinion and give support or reject support based on their own opinion.
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is that it is illegal according to international law
Again, there is no democracy when it comes to international politics: that's not an opinion, that's simple fact. That's why the most the UN can do is use economic sanctions. Read up on the efficacy of the ICC. Where's Milosevic? Karadzic? Heck, Bill Clinton was brought up on crimes against humanity for that strike in Sudan.
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about france germany and russia:
you can't say that there are any countries that have suffered more during war than these countries
Sure you can. England suffered horrendous bombings during WWII. The actions of Japanese soldiers towards POW's and the Pacific Islands partly prompted the Geneva Convention.
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If you oppose the war, your connections with the us will deep freeze and the economic consequences will be disastrous. Do you really have a choice?
Of course you do. Turkey pulled back their airspace, and you could always NOT get involved. The US government does give aid to other nations; but this isn't as much as the World Bank provides - nations are more indebted to the World Bank and the UN more than they are the US.
Also, you would have to explain why larger nations that DO have a choice are siding with US, like England and Australia.
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mr blix did not find any weapons.
I still haven't found my keys, doesn't mean their not in my house.
Hiding nukes is almost impossible; but hiding chemical or bioweapons is incredibly easy. This is why there is less emphasis on inspection and more on intelligence when it comes to gaining knowledge on the possession of these type of weapons. Israel and US intelligence (which, say what we will, very few can deny that Israel and US intelligence are probably among the most sophisticated in the world) both confirm biological and chemical weapons in Iraq.
Lastly, (and again, I'm not throwing support either for or against the war), to say war is never justified is ridiculous.
As terrible as it sounds, war is the only reason we've gotten rid of slavery, naziism, fascism, and communism.
War can be justified. In this case, I don't know; I'm only reactionary towards anti-war protesters because their argument seems much more muddled, yet more vocalized.
I know two people that are against the war that have provided very clean and persuasive arguments, and even these are having trouble denting the logical arguments of those for the war.
Again, very skeptical on the "global opinion" factor. So far the best line of arguments I've heard against the war has been whether or not diplomacy would have made a decent impact with obviously less risks. The counter I've heard for that is a time factor argument that was very strong in trumping the other.
I dunno. Lemme submit this:
1) Iraq needed a regime change; no way diplomacy would have done anything in this department.
2) Bush is a horrible advocate for the war. Don't base the justification for that argument on a bad deliveryman.
3) Saddam was told if he did not leave Iraq peacefully, he would be attacked.
Honestly, the best line of argument for anti-war people is probably the idea that diplomacy would have been a better route, yet no one seems to push it. I would be much more impressed if someone crafted a decent argument with that in mind, rather than generalized statements about the US and the negative effects of war at specific points in history.
-Ramon http://razor.ramon.com
