This morning, the secretary of defense Chuck Hagel announced that the United States would only take action against Syria for the use of chemical weapons as part of an action by the international community taken with legal justification. Here is how Reuters reported Hagel's comments:
The United States would only take action on Syria in concert with the international community and with legal justification in response to the alleged chemical weapons attacks in Damascus, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said on Monday.
When I read comments like this, I wonder whether anyone at the State Department or the Defense Department actually bothers to research the law. If they did, they would find that both the USA and Syria are parties to the Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare (usually called the Geneva Protocol). That treaty was signed in 1925 and went into force in 1928. In 1969, the UN General Assembly (resolution 2603) declared that the prohibition on use of chemical and biological weapons contained in the Geneva Protocol is recognized as a rule of international law.
What this means is that there already is in place (since 1928) a legal justification for action against Syria. Why are they still talking in Washington about the need for such justification? It seems that the Obama folks think that if they did not do something, it does not exist.
Can't we get someone with a brain in DC?
By the way, for those of you who may think that this is some obscure treaty, let me tell you two things:
1. This is the treaty that kept World War II free from the use of poison gas.
2. It took me about three minutes to find the information about the treaty and the UN resolution. (And I wasn't moving all that quickly.)
The United States would only take action on Syria in concert with the international community and with legal justification in response to the alleged chemical weapons attacks in Damascus, U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said on Monday.
When I read comments like this, I wonder whether anyone at the State Department or the Defense Department actually bothers to research the law. If they did, they would find that both the USA and Syria are parties to the Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare (usually called the Geneva Protocol). That treaty was signed in 1925 and went into force in 1928. In 1969, the UN General Assembly (resolution 2603) declared that the prohibition on use of chemical and biological weapons contained in the Geneva Protocol is recognized as a rule of international law.
What this means is that there already is in place (since 1928) a legal justification for action against Syria. Why are they still talking in Washington about the need for such justification? It seems that the Obama folks think that if they did not do something, it does not exist.
Can't we get someone with a brain in DC?
By the way, for those of you who may think that this is some obscure treaty, let me tell you two things:
1. This is the treaty that kept World War II free from the use of poison gas.
2. It took me about three minutes to find the information about the treaty and the UN resolution. (And I wasn't moving all that quickly.)
1 comment:
Can't we get someone with a brain in DC?
Actually most have 2 brains, One lost, the other out looking for it.
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