The United States, the Law, and the people of the world
As far as international law is concerned the United States (supported by other NATO
countries) has flouted the requirements of the United Nations, the Geneva Convention, the
Vienna Convention on the law of treaties, the North Atlantic Treaty, and asserted a right to
bomb where it pleases to enforce its presence on the world. The US may be strengthened in
its resolve by the fact that it fought a war, achieving all it set out to do, without losing a single
American life.
The question before the people of the world is: Are we going to accept the right of the United
States to attack countries anywhere it wants using a humanitarian pretext for “intervention.”
It should be remembered that in all conflicts there are humanitarian needs at stake, so there
will always be this excuse available. The need can always be increased by developing a
conflict first by overtly or secretly supporting one side in a dispute against another, as, in fact,
the US did in Kosovo.
Will the USA prevail in Europe?
The United States has acted like this on many previous occasions, but perhaps this time it will
be different and the people of Europe in their millions will challenge the behaviour of those
who sought so strenuously to mislead them in the spring of 1999.
The methods of the United States and the awful human consequences are here in Europe for
Europeans to see. Perhaps in Europe the Government of the United States will find itself (its
policies, its occupying forces, and its products) rejected, and it may feel a need to start to
adopt a lawful and genuinely humanitarian approach to its relationships with the rest of the
world.
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