Letter to Annan on threat of U.S. aggression
The Hon. Kofi Annan
Office of the Secretary-General
United Nations Headquarters
New York, NY 10017
Thursday, May 4th, 2006
Dear Mr. Secretary-General,
I am writing today as a citizen of the United States to ask you to initiate extraordinary proceedings in the U.N. Security Council and General Assembly pursuant to Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter regarding the threat to international peace and security posed by the government of my own country, the United States of America.
I have written to you before regarding the ongoing U.S. war of aggression in Iraq, and I note with deep regret that the U.N. has failed to fulfill its responsibility in any respect to restore peace or security to the beleaguered people of Iraq as they are bombed, shot and tortured, and as their homes and the infrastructure of their country are destroyed. In addition to eight or ten “enduring bases” for its armies of occupation, my government has now built four larger “contingency operating bases” with extensive air force facilities, from which attack aircraft take off every day to more efficiently wreak death and destruction on the surrounding country. My government has also recruited and trained “Interior Ministry special police commando” units comprised of Badr Brigade militiamen, who have detained, tortured and murdered thousands of Iraqi civilians according to U.N. human rights reports.
At the same time, Ahmad Chalabi, the oil minister of the transitional government is offering “production sharing agreement” contracts to U.S. oil companies including ExxonMobil and Chevron with clauses intended to protect these companies from claims of sovereignty over its energy resources by any future government of Iraq. The puppet government has also approved a law permitting 100% repatriation of profits under such contracts, making this a thinly veiled exercise in colonial looting. As my government destroys the rest of Iraq, it is spending $600 million to build a Kafkaesque fortified “embassy” in Baghdad to administer its exploitation of Iraq’s resources.
My government has now begun a campaign of threats and intimidation against the nation and people of Iran, and may have already launched covert military action within that country. These threats are themselves a violation of Article 2(4) of the U.N. Charter, but you and your colleagues must understand that they are much more than idle threats. Since its invasion of Iraq, the United States government has consistently published policy statements that explicitly reject the terms of the U.N. Charter, declaring its intention to conduct further military operations in violation of international treaties and customary principles of international law.
In particular, the Defense Strategy of the U.S.A. (2005) threatens unilateral military action against “gathering threats”, “emerging challenges”, “to deny an opponent the strategic initiative” and to “defeat adversaries at the time, place, and in the manner of our choosing – setting the conditions for future security”, all of which would constitute flagrant violations of international law.
Since the U.N. Charter was drawn up in 1945, no country has previously been so bold as to declare its intention to simply ignore it, and the present policy of the United States exposes the fundamental weakness of the U.N. system of collective security. The “veto” prevents the Security Council from taking action without the consensus of its five permanent members, insulating these five countries from collective action by the rest of the world to maintain the rule of international law.
This weakness was perceived from the outset, leading Albert Camus to write in Combat on February 16th 1946 that the veto “would effectively put an end to any idea of international democracy…The Five would retain forever the freedom of maneuver that would be forever denied the others.” The U.N. system has however survived and accomplished a great deal precisely because the permanent members have understood that their privileged position within this system gives them an interest in upholding its laws.
The present behavior of the United States constitutes a cynical gamble that you and its fellow members cannot muster the collective will to challenge its illegal behavior. However, you must realize that your failure to do so will only encourage this criminal regime in the belief that it can ignore its most solemn obligations with impunity.
The United States has initiated a campaign of propaganda and intimidation against Iran predicated on the “threat” posed to the world by Iran’s efforts to acquire nuclear technology, while turning a blind eye to the actual acquisition of nuclear weapons by Israel, Pakistan and India, and ignoring its own obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, all of which provide a rational basis for the Iranian government to seek its own nuclear deterrent.
With Israeli and American nuclear-armed submarines within miles of its coast, U.S. armies on its borders with Iraq and Afghanistan, and the U.S. government wedded to a policy of illegal aggression, to whom can Iran turn to protect its people and its resources? To the United Nations, perhaps?
If the United Nations cannot protect the people of the world from acts of aggression, they will end up defending themselves as they have done throughout history, and as the people of Iraq are doing today. The Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland conducted a survey in Iraq in January 2006, and found that 88% of Sunni Arabs, 41% of Shiite Arabs and 16% of Kurdish Iraqis now support violent resistance to the U.S. occupation of their country. These numbers have grown steadily since the 2003 invasion.
The promise of the United Nations was to replace this world of Hobbesian violence and conflict with a Kantian arrangement based on the overarching desire of all peoples to live in peace with each other, free from the belligerent schemes of greedy and unscrupulous leaders. Because the development of increasingly destructive weapons has continued unchecked, the danger posed by a reversion to open worldwide warfare now threatens the very existence of the human race and of life on Earth.
As the saying goes, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing”. You are a good man. Please do something!
Yours sincerely
Cc: U.N. Legal Counsel Nicolas Michel
U.S. Senator Bill Nelson
U.S. Senator Mel Martinez
U.S. Congressman Kendrick Meek
Accompanying cover letter to Congressman Meek:
Congressman Kendrick Meek
1039 Longworth House Office Building
Washington DC 20515
Saturday, May 6th, 2006
Dear Congressman Meek,
Please find attached a copy of a letter I have sent to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. In this letter, I ask him to initiate appropriate steps to address the threat posed to international peace and security by the present government of our own country, the United States of America.
Although I realize that I am but one voice of a concerned citizen, and that the Secretary General himself has limited power to address my concerns, I do not take such a step lightly or frivolously. I have watched as our own political and judicial systems appear powerless to bring our government into compliance with international law or to prosecute serious war crimes by senior U.S. policymakers. I believe that the U.N. and its members will ultimately have to act to prevent further aggression by the government of the United States, and that early action could prevent unnecessary pain and suffering to millions of people.
By any rational analysis, the growing disaster in Iraq should be prompting our government to conduct an urgent reevaluation of its entire policy of military and commercial expansion in the Middle East. Instead, this administration is actually drawing up plans to escalate its war of aggression in that region by attacking Iran as well. These are the actions of a deluded, irresponsible and unaccountable regime, and it is no exaggeration to say that it poses a significant danger to the entire world.
Please read my letter to the Secretary-General, and please think about how you can use your position as a member of the U.S. Congress and of a number of important congressional committees to rein in the abuses of these criminals who have manipulated our political system to attain unwarranted and unconstitutional power.
Yours sincerely
Office of the Secretary-General
United Nations Headquarters
New York, NY 10017
Thursday, May 4th, 2006
Dear Mr. Secretary-General,
I am writing today as a citizen of the United States to ask you to initiate extraordinary proceedings in the U.N. Security Council and General Assembly pursuant to Chapter VII of the U.N. Charter regarding the threat to international peace and security posed by the government of my own country, the United States of America.
I have written to you before regarding the ongoing U.S. war of aggression in Iraq, and I note with deep regret that the U.N. has failed to fulfill its responsibility in any respect to restore peace or security to the beleaguered people of Iraq as they are bombed, shot and tortured, and as their homes and the infrastructure of their country are destroyed. In addition to eight or ten “enduring bases” for its armies of occupation, my government has now built four larger “contingency operating bases” with extensive air force facilities, from which attack aircraft take off every day to more efficiently wreak death and destruction on the surrounding country. My government has also recruited and trained “Interior Ministry special police commando” units comprised of Badr Brigade militiamen, who have detained, tortured and murdered thousands of Iraqi civilians according to U.N. human rights reports.
At the same time, Ahmad Chalabi, the oil minister of the transitional government is offering “production sharing agreement” contracts to U.S. oil companies including ExxonMobil and Chevron with clauses intended to protect these companies from claims of sovereignty over its energy resources by any future government of Iraq. The puppet government has also approved a law permitting 100% repatriation of profits under such contracts, making this a thinly veiled exercise in colonial looting. As my government destroys the rest of Iraq, it is spending $600 million to build a Kafkaesque fortified “embassy” in Baghdad to administer its exploitation of Iraq’s resources.
My government has now begun a campaign of threats and intimidation against the nation and people of Iran, and may have already launched covert military action within that country. These threats are themselves a violation of Article 2(4) of the U.N. Charter, but you and your colleagues must understand that they are much more than idle threats. Since its invasion of Iraq, the United States government has consistently published policy statements that explicitly reject the terms of the U.N. Charter, declaring its intention to conduct further military operations in violation of international treaties and customary principles of international law.
In particular, the Defense Strategy of the U.S.A. (2005) threatens unilateral military action against “gathering threats”, “emerging challenges”, “to deny an opponent the strategic initiative” and to “defeat adversaries at the time, place, and in the manner of our choosing – setting the conditions for future security”, all of which would constitute flagrant violations of international law.
Since the U.N. Charter was drawn up in 1945, no country has previously been so bold as to declare its intention to simply ignore it, and the present policy of the United States exposes the fundamental weakness of the U.N. system of collective security. The “veto” prevents the Security Council from taking action without the consensus of its five permanent members, insulating these five countries from collective action by the rest of the world to maintain the rule of international law.
This weakness was perceived from the outset, leading Albert Camus to write in Combat on February 16th 1946 that the veto “would effectively put an end to any idea of international democracy…The Five would retain forever the freedom of maneuver that would be forever denied the others.” The U.N. system has however survived and accomplished a great deal precisely because the permanent members have understood that their privileged position within this system gives them an interest in upholding its laws.
The present behavior of the United States constitutes a cynical gamble that you and its fellow members cannot muster the collective will to challenge its illegal behavior. However, you must realize that your failure to do so will only encourage this criminal regime in the belief that it can ignore its most solemn obligations with impunity.
The United States has initiated a campaign of propaganda and intimidation against Iran predicated on the “threat” posed to the world by Iran’s efforts to acquire nuclear technology, while turning a blind eye to the actual acquisition of nuclear weapons by Israel, Pakistan and India, and ignoring its own obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, all of which provide a rational basis for the Iranian government to seek its own nuclear deterrent.
With Israeli and American nuclear-armed submarines within miles of its coast, U.S. armies on its borders with Iraq and Afghanistan, and the U.S. government wedded to a policy of illegal aggression, to whom can Iran turn to protect its people and its resources? To the United Nations, perhaps?
If the United Nations cannot protect the people of the world from acts of aggression, they will end up defending themselves as they have done throughout history, and as the people of Iraq are doing today. The Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland conducted a survey in Iraq in January 2006, and found that 88% of Sunni Arabs, 41% of Shiite Arabs and 16% of Kurdish Iraqis now support violent resistance to the U.S. occupation of their country. These numbers have grown steadily since the 2003 invasion.
The promise of the United Nations was to replace this world of Hobbesian violence and conflict with a Kantian arrangement based on the overarching desire of all peoples to live in peace with each other, free from the belligerent schemes of greedy and unscrupulous leaders. Because the development of increasingly destructive weapons has continued unchecked, the danger posed by a reversion to open worldwide warfare now threatens the very existence of the human race and of life on Earth.
As the saying goes, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing”. You are a good man. Please do something!
Yours sincerely
Cc: U.N. Legal Counsel Nicolas Michel
U.S. Senator Bill Nelson
U.S. Senator Mel Martinez
U.S. Congressman Kendrick Meek
Accompanying cover letter to Congressman Meek:
Congressman Kendrick Meek
1039 Longworth House Office Building
Washington DC 20515
Saturday, May 6th, 2006
Dear Congressman Meek,
Please find attached a copy of a letter I have sent to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. In this letter, I ask him to initiate appropriate steps to address the threat posed to international peace and security by the present government of our own country, the United States of America.
Although I realize that I am but one voice of a concerned citizen, and that the Secretary General himself has limited power to address my concerns, I do not take such a step lightly or frivolously. I have watched as our own political and judicial systems appear powerless to bring our government into compliance with international law or to prosecute serious war crimes by senior U.S. policymakers. I believe that the U.N. and its members will ultimately have to act to prevent further aggression by the government of the United States, and that early action could prevent unnecessary pain and suffering to millions of people.
By any rational analysis, the growing disaster in Iraq should be prompting our government to conduct an urgent reevaluation of its entire policy of military and commercial expansion in the Middle East. Instead, this administration is actually drawing up plans to escalate its war of aggression in that region by attacking Iran as well. These are the actions of a deluded, irresponsible and unaccountable regime, and it is no exaggeration to say that it poses a significant danger to the entire world.
Please read my letter to the Secretary-General, and please think about how you can use your position as a member of the U.S. Congress and of a number of important congressional committees to rein in the abuses of these criminals who have manipulated our political system to attain unwarranted and unconstitutional power.
Yours sincerely
posted by Nicolas Davies | 4:38 PM
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