Nuclear Age Peace Foundation

Tag: accountability

  • Accountability for the War In Iraq

    David KriegerThe current level of violence in Iraq has a single root: the destabilizing act in 2003 of illegally invading and then occupying Iraq ordered by the George W. Bush administration, with their arrogant claims that US troops would be greeted as liberators. Rather than liberating Iraq, however, our country lost yet another war there, one which left thousands of American soldiers dead, tens of thousands wounded and still more traumatized. We also destabilized the region; slaughtered and displaced Iraqis; left Iraq in a mess; created the conditions for a civil war there; strengthened Iran; created many new advocates of al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations; and demonstrated disdain for international law.

    The Bush administration led and lied the US into an aggressive war, the kind of war held to be a crime against peace at Nuremberg.  The lying was despicable, an impeachable offense, but it is too late for the impeachment of a president and vice-president who are now out of office.  The initiation of an aggressive war was an act, however, for which there should always be accountability, as there was at Nuremberg.  This, of course, would require having the courage and principle as a country to create policies to hold our own leaders to the same standards that we held those leaders whom we defeated in combat.

    The failure of militarism to accomplish any reasonable end, compounded by the terrible and predictable loss of life, is a strong argument for pursuing peace by peaceful means. The most important question confronting the US as a society is: have we learned any valuable lessons or gained any wisdom from our defeats in Iraq and Afghanistan? Those wars demonstrate conclusively that as a country we learned all the wrong lessons (worse than nothing) from the grotesque war in Vietnam.

    Shall we send US forces back into Iraq because the intensity of the war there is increasing?  That is what those who lied us into the war in the first place would have us do.  Shall we follow their advice on the deployment of US military might yet again?  It is indisputable that the US has caused and set in motion terrible violence in Iraq.  But our military forces cannot reverse the harm we have already done and would likely only make matters worse.

    History tells us that the use of US force throughout the world since World War II has always made matters worse for the innocent civilians caught in the conflict.  There is no reason to believe that this time would be any different.  Should our political leaders fail to learn from our recent history, however, and choose to reengage with a military intervention, we can be sure that not only will there be terrible collateral damage, harming the innocent, but that our own soldiers will pay a heavy price and the problems with our Veterans Administration (VA) hospitals will be greatly exacerbated.

     

    David Krieger is president of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (www.wagingpeace.org).  His recent book, Summer Grasses, is an anthology of war poetry.

  • Denying Access to a United Nation Official: An Issue of Human Rights

    Denying Access to a United Nation Official: An Issue of Human Rights

    Richard Falk is a soft-spoken and reflective man. He is a scholar, the author or editor of more than 50 books, including important books on human rights. For 40 years he was a professor of international law and practice at Princeton University. After becoming emeritus at Princeton, Falk moved to California, and became a distinguished visiting scholar at the University of California at Santa Barbara. He continues to maintain a busy schedule of teaching at various universities, writing books and articles, and lecturing throughout the world.

    I have known him as a friend and colleague for more than three decades. Despite his mild and scholarly manner, he can be tough on issues of human rights. He has dedicated his life to upholding and strengthening international law and has held human rights as central to international law. With regard to international law in general, and to human rights in particular, he has been a proponent of universal responsibility for upholding human rights and of individual accountability for egregious failures to do so.

    Earlier this year, Falk was appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council as the Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories. In this capacity, he is the key person in the United Nations system to report on potential human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories. Falk was chosen by the UN Human Rights Council for this position out of 184 potential candidates.

    This past Sunday, Falk attempted to enter Israel on his way to the Palestinian territories. He was denied entry, detained at the Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv by Israeli officials for 20 hours, and expelled from the country the next day.

    Israeli officials defended their position in denying Falk entry on the grounds that he was hostile to Israel, having said in 2007 that the Israeli blockade of Gaza was a “Holocaust in the making” and for having said this year that Israel’s imposition of collective punishment against the entire population of Gaza is a “crime against humanity.”

    Israeli officials are angry that Falk’s UN mandate as Special Rapporteur focuses solely on Israeli abuses in the Palestinian territories and does not call for reporting on Palestinian abuses of the human rights of Israelis. They also accused Falk of coming into the country on a tourist visa in June 2008 for an academic conference and of having used the occasion to gather information for work in his UN capacity.

    It is clear that Israeli officials do not like the positions that Falk has taken with regard to Israeli actions affecting the Palestinian territories. The Israelis are not, however, taking action against Falk as an individual. They are refusing him entry to their country in his capacity as a United Nations official. In doing so, they are denying him access to the Palestinian territories and making it impossible for him to effectively do the job that has been assigned to him by the United Nations. This is unacceptable.

    Upon his return to the United States, Falk commented on his experience, “My detention and denial of entry into Israel is part of a broader pattern designed to obscure the realities of the occupation by keeping qualified observers from getting out and, in my case, from getting in. Israel has been shifting attention as much as possible to the observer and away from what is observed. In doing so, they have distorted my views. The main point is not balance, but truth, and it is the rendering of what is true in Gaza, the harsh collective punishment, that gives the impression of imbalance. This isn’t about me. It’s about the Palestinian people.”

    If we are to have an international community governed by international law, no state should be allowed to act against the interests of the whole, as Israel is doing in denying Falk the ability to do his work as Special Rapporteur. Sovereignty cannot trump the interests of the international community at large, and the interests of the community lie in the ability of Special Rapporteurs, such as Falk, being able to visit the territories of their responsibility and report on what they find.

    Israel can, of course, take exception to Falk and continue their allegations of his bias, but they should not be allowed to deny him access to the territories where his responsibility lies. Israeli officials can counter the UN Special Rapporteur’s reports with their own facts and positions, but they should not be able to prevent the work of an agent of the United Nations.

    Israel’s position on this matter is an affront not so much to Falk personally as to the United Nations system and to the Palestinian people. This is a situation on which the Secretary General of the United Nations should be speaking out in protest and his protests should be backed by both the General Assembly and the Security Council. This is not an issue of politics. It is an issue of human rights that demands the attention of the world.

    David Krieger is President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (www.wagingpeace.org) and a councilor on the World Future Council.

  • Accountability for the Iraq War

    David KriegerWe have been engaged in an illegal war in Iraq for five years – and there is no accountability.

    It is beyond doubt that our leaders lied us into this war – and there is no accountability.

    More than four thousand American and coalition soldiers are dead – and there is no accountability.

    Tens of thousands of American and coalition soldiers are seriously wounded – and there is no accountability.

    Our surviving soldiers are coming home traumatized from the war without proper medical and psychiatric care – and there is no accountability.

    More than a million Iraqis, mostly civilians, have been killed in this war and countless others wounded – and there is no accountability.

    More than four million Iraqis are displaced as internal or external refugees of this war – and there is no accountability.

    By using so-called “depleted uranium” weapons, we are poisoning the earth, air and water of Iraq, causing serious health problems to Iraqis and coalition soldiers – and there is no accountability.

    America has become a nation that tortures – and there is no accountability.

    America has become a nation that spies on its citizens – and there is no accountability.

    America has become a nation that hides the body bags of its soldiers killed in action – and there is no accountability.

    We are spending $12 billion a month on this war – and there is no accountability.

    Reputable economists calculate that this war will cost American citizens more than $3 trillion – and there is no accountability.

    This war is burdening unborn generations of Americans and Iraqis – and there is no accountability.

    This war has brought respect for America to its lowest ebb throughout the world – and there is no accountability.

    The war in Iraq has stretched our military forces to the breaking point, making us far less able to cope with real threats to our security – and there is no accountability.

    The war in Iraq has been a training ground for terrorists, making us far less safe – and there is no accountability.

    Accountability means holding to account those who are responsible for a war that is illegal under international law – in this case, it means holding to account those who have been irresponsible and criminal in their behavior. It means holding to account George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell and others. It means not just their disgrace, but trials to bring them to justice.

    This is not a partisan issue – it is an issue of responsibility and accountability and, at a deeper level, an issue of restoring our decency, our dignity and our democracy.

    Americans must hold those responsible for this war to account.

     

    David Krieger is President of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.