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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNoam Chomsky Weighs In On Syria Strike
WASHINGTON -- A U.S.-led attack on Syria without United Nations support would be a war crime regardless of congressional approval, Noam Chomsky, the antiwar activist and author, said in response to President Barack Obama's announcement that he would seek Hill approval.
"As international support for Obamas decision to attack Syria has collapsed, along with the credibility of government claims, the administration has fallen back on a standard pretext for war crimes when all else fails: the credibility of the threats of the self-designated policeman of the world," Chomsky told HuffPost in an email.
Chomsky recently traveled to the region to learn more about the Syria crisis, and his comments there led some to believe he was open to military intervention if negotiations failed to produce peace. "I believe you should choose the negotiating track first, and should you fail, then moving to the second option" -- backing the rebels -- "becomes more acceptable," he said.
But his comments to HuffPost indicate that he remains opposed to any military action that came without U.N. approval.
"[T]hat aggression without UN authorization would be a war crime, a very serious one, is quite clear, despite tortured efforts to invoke other crimes as precedents," he added.
in full: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/02/noam-chomsky-syria_n_3851911.html
mike_c
(36,281 posts)We signed the Charter, for pete's sake. We helped write it, in fact. It defines aggression as a war crime, a crime against humanity. Are we a nation of laws, or are we a nation of rogue warriors, however well intended?
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)writes the reasoning for the strike.
mike_c
(36,281 posts)Today Ban Ki Moon reiterated publicly that attacking Syria except in self defense or under UN direction is a war crime. One cannot reason their way out of that any more than bank robbers can provide adequate justification and be relieved of responsibility for following the law.
Jefferson23
(30,099 posts)Boehner's support, sounded to me a combination of punishment and deterrence is the reason
to strike. Clinton's legal team wrote justification for his strike calling it humanitarian..but also
wrote that this action/reasoning should NOT be considered a precedent.
I would like to know how in the hell you can have it both ways.
I am against any strike btw and it is disturbing the UN report stories about our government
allegedly giving them a hard time...saying things like, your report won't be accurate b/c of all the
physical damage in the area. I don't like anything I am hearing so far.