What Cost to Justice as Power Reigns?

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, March 26, 2003

What Cost to Justice as Power Reigns?

Power which lacks justice and common sense is conventionally and rightly considered to be a dreadful and dangerous thing.

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Power which lacks justice and common sense is conventionally and rightly considered to be a dreadful and dangerous thing.

The respect for a just world order is at stake today.

We have to admit that there is little we can do to check the power of those irresponsible players within the international community.

Styling themselves as liberators of Iraq, the countries who have been pounding this Arab nation for four days claim they are bringing freedom to it.

For them, missiles and bombers are the means to help the Iraqi people achieve a united, stable and free country.

Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf claimed earlier on Saturday that at least 250 civilians have been killed in the bombings, which officials from the United States and Britain say are aimed at government targets and executed by precision-guided missiles.

Still, the government buildings and military facilities in Iraq are not legitimate targets given the fact that the war as a whole is illegitimate.

The "liberators" have, so far, not been greeted by flowers and tears of delight and gratitude from the "oppressed" people of Iraq.

The US and British leaders promised a "brighter and better" Iraq.

Is it lawful and moral that democracy and freedom is imposed on a country by bombing and invading it?

In the case of Iraq at least, the action itself is undemocratic.

Some British officials argued that this war against Iraq would have not been launched had not France threatened a veto on the second resolution authorizing a military strike.

Such justification displays contempt for the opinion of other member states and the democratic principles of the international community.

Britain, one of the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, has in the past exercised its power of veto 34 times.

The onus is on the countries of high moral tone, which believe that their strong military strength outweighs international law.

The logic of all this is that this is the way to settle international conflicts. The salient quality of which is that power counts.

The anger the United States and Britain have expressed towards France and other nations which have opposed this war speaks volumes.

But the wise are only too aware of the dangerous precedent set by the use of unilateral military action against a sovereign nation.

It will open the door for other countries to take the law into their own hands and launch pre-emptive military strikes contrary to once, universally binding restraints.

And if this should happen, how would the United States and Britain react?

The US-led troops' precision-guided missiles, keeping casualties as low as possible and intelligence efforts to instigate defections within the Iraqi army, cannot change the fact that this war is unlawful.

Soldiers and civilians have died and will die, while doubts and worries about the role of the United Nations are mounting.

What can bring justice and the rule of law back to the world? (China Daily News)

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