Follow-up Letter on Illegality of War in Iraq
Senator John Kerry
304 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Friday, February 20th 2004
Dear Senator Kerry,
I am writing today as an addendum to my letter of January 1st 2004, in which I concluded that the U.S. invasion of Iraq was illegal under the terms of the Kellogg-Briand Pact and the U.N. Charter, and therefore unconstitutional under Article VI (the “Supremacy Clause”) of the U.S. Constitution.
My letter cited from the Nuremberg Judgment, and I therefore also took the liberty of asking Ben Ferencz, who served as Chief Prosecutor at the Nuremberg Tribunal in 1946, to comment on my conclusions. Mr. Ferencz was kind enough to reply to my enquiry, and told me, “I agree completely with your conclusion that the U.S. has committed an illegal act of aggression by its invasion of Iraq”.
While you have addressed various aspects of the ongoing war in Iraq in your election campaign, you have been silent on the fundamental question of legality, which lies at the heart of this entire problem. A simple commitment to the rule of international law would have sufficed to steer our country clear of the growing crisis we have precipitated. The absence of such a commitment to the rule of international law by the leaders of either major political party in the U.S. threatens the peace and stability of the entire world. I hope that you will seriously consider my conclusions as well as those of Mr. Ferencz; that you will speak out against the illegal and unconstitutional policies of the Bush administration; and that you will publicly call for the renunciation of militarism and a renewed commitment to the rule of constitutional and international law.
Yours sincerely
304 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510
Friday, February 20th 2004
Dear Senator Kerry,
I am writing today as an addendum to my letter of January 1st 2004, in which I concluded that the U.S. invasion of Iraq was illegal under the terms of the Kellogg-Briand Pact and the U.N. Charter, and therefore unconstitutional under Article VI (the “Supremacy Clause”) of the U.S. Constitution.
My letter cited from the Nuremberg Judgment, and I therefore also took the liberty of asking Ben Ferencz, who served as Chief Prosecutor at the Nuremberg Tribunal in 1946, to comment on my conclusions. Mr. Ferencz was kind enough to reply to my enquiry, and told me, “I agree completely with your conclusion that the U.S. has committed an illegal act of aggression by its invasion of Iraq”.
While you have addressed various aspects of the ongoing war in Iraq in your election campaign, you have been silent on the fundamental question of legality, which lies at the heart of this entire problem. A simple commitment to the rule of international law would have sufficed to steer our country clear of the growing crisis we have precipitated. The absence of such a commitment to the rule of international law by the leaders of either major political party in the U.S. threatens the peace and stability of the entire world. I hope that you will seriously consider my conclusions as well as those of Mr. Ferencz; that you will speak out against the illegal and unconstitutional policies of the Bush administration; and that you will publicly call for the renunciation of militarism and a renewed commitment to the rule of constitutional and international law.
Yours sincerely
posted by Nicolas Davies | 9:14 AM
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