Costs of the U.S.-Led War in Iraq Since 2003
watson.brown.edu
watson.brown.edu
Should be any day now, right? Right?
Oh wait, they didn’t issue the warrant because of aggressive war, it’s due to forced deportations of children, something that AFAIK didn’t really happen in Iraq. That’s convenient.
US actions in Iraq are not subject to ICC jurisdiction because:
(1) THe US is not an ICC member, so the ICC’s jurisdiction over ICC members is not applicable,
(2) Iraq is not an ICC member, so the ICC’s jurisdiction over crimes on the territories of ICC members is not applicable,
(3) Iraq has not, as a non-member, acceded voluntarily to ICC jurisdiction over war crimes on its territory, so ICC’s jurisdiction over crimes on the territories of stats who have voluntarily acceded to its jurisdiction is not applicable.
(4) The matter was not referred to the ICC by the UN Security Council, so the ICC's jurisdiction based on Security Council referral was not applicable,
> Oh wait, they didn’t issue the warrant because of aggressive war, it’s due to forced deportations of children, something that AFAIK didn’t really happen in Iraq. That’s convenient.
Had the ICC had jurisdiction over all applicable parties and territories at the time of the US invasion of Iraq, it could not have charged anyone for aggressive war, because the definition of the crime of aggression for the purposes of ICC process was not adopted until 2010, and the provisions making it prosecutable did not go into effect until 2018.
Similarly, the ICC provisions on aggression cannot be used in Ukraine, since unlike other offenses (war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide) prosecutable by the ICC, the crime of aggression (except in cases of an UN Security Council referral, which bypasses other jurisdictional limits) is only prosecutable against State Parties to the Rome Statute who have ratified the amendments concerning the crime of aggression, and the matter in Ukraine is not subject to a Security Council referral and Russia is not a State Party to the Rome Statute. The Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine to the UN Human Rights Council released two days ago explicitly calls out this jurisdictional issue with regard to aggression and notes [footnotes elided] “The ICC is investigating alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide in Ukraine. It does not have jurisdiction for the crime of aggression in Ukraine. Suggestions have been made to establish a special tribunal on aggression. Any such tribunal would have to coordinate with the ICC. Furthermore, it should have the required international legitimacy, both with respect to its establishment and functioning. Discussions about a new tribunal should be combined with efforts to amend the ICC Statute, so that the Court’s jurisdiction over aggression is identical to the other three crimes.” Also note that the warrants announced by the ICC in Ukraine may not be the only ones already issued; limited information about what are still technically secret warrants was published because the specific crimes appear to remain ongoing and it is hoped that the announcement of the warrants will deter further involvement in them. [1]
[0] https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies...
[1] “The Chamber considered that the warrants are secret in order to protect victims and witnesses and also to safeguard the investigation. Nevertheless, mindful that the conduct addressed in the present situation is allegedly ongoing, and that the public awareness of the warrants may contribute to the prevention of the further commission of crimes, the Chamber considered that it is in the interests of justice to authorise the Registry to publicly disclose the existence of the warrants, the name of the suspects, the crimes for which the warrants are issued, and the modes of liability as established by the Chamber.” https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/situation-ukraine-icc-judges-is...
Russia is not a member of the ICC either, does that pose a jurisdiction issue?
At least one of these four things must apply for the ICC to have jurisdiction (excluding for aggression, which is more limited):
(1) The accused party must be a national of a state party,
(2) the alleged offense must have occurred on the territory of a state party,
(3) exactly as either (1) or (2), but with “a state which has filed a declaration accepting jurisdiction as to its nationals or territory, as applicable” [in practice, this will presumably always be territory] in place of “a state party”.
(4) the matter was referred to the court by the UNSC.
Because Ukraine, while not a state party, has filed an open-ended declaration accepting ICC jurisdiction for offenses on its territory, such offenses, no matter the nationality of the accused, are subject to ICC jurisdiction.
The US and all allied powers, including Russia, were signatories to the Nuremberg Principles[0] which we used to prosecute the Nazis for “waging a unilaterally aggressive war.” All signatories agreed this was a war crime. What’s changed?
For the record, I think Putin should be tried for war crimes based on his invasion of Ukraine. I also believe the US should be held to the same standard.
[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_principles
Edit: changed Nuremberg Code to Nuremberg Principles, Added reference
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_support_for_Iraq...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddam_Hussein
Life is complicated.
P.S. - I did not support the Iraq war in 2003 or now. Just cognizant of how such things unfurl beyond the trendy self-flagellation.
It doesn’t really change that individuals/groups/governments/nations deescalate tension and demonstrate integrity by holding themselves accountable.
And yes sure, I guess russians that oppose the aggression war on ukraine are just indulging in self flagelation too.
https://www.reuters.com/news/picture/iconic-images-from-the-...
This has a “live counter” constantly incrementing which shows the total cost of the “global war on terror”.
One of Bin Laden's goals was to foment distrust of America around the world. He succeeded.
The undermining of core liberties, the sullying of legal foundations to support the "war on terror", the vast increase in monitoring and other totalitarian state system, further radicalization of the right wing and division in the US, that was alllll gravy.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jan/06/us-police-ki...
In the last 25 years American police have killed more Americans than terrorists have.
More American lives would be saved by putting resources towards getting the police under control than by more spending on the nebulous war on terror.
But I guess that’s not really what you’re arguing here, you’re saying “black men being killed by police at a rate 2.5 times higher than white men, but people think it’s worse than that,” and “people are making too much noise about black men being killed by police at a rate 2.5 times higher than white men, and they really ought to cut it out.”
I disagree with this viewpoint completely.
> Additionally, the rate of fatal police shootings among Black Americans was much higher than that for any other ethnicity, standing at 5.9 fatal shootings per million of the population per year between 2015 and January 2023.
I guess if we're going to unpack that, it's also worth noting that about 60% of the population of America is considered white and about 12% of the population in America is black, according to https://usafacts.org/data/topics/people-society/population-a...
Across the various years reported on the link you shared 46% of people shot to death by police were white, 22% were black. While that's more dead white people than dead black people, it's also disproportionate to the population.
While you're pondering what deaths we pay attention to, consider all the ways alcohol kills people, and how preventable that is, since we're just throwing things out there.
Just saying it's not worth the outrage we've seen. Anyway we're ot.
That's a misleading way to use the term "rate". If you adjust for relative population size, the rate at which police shoot black people in the USA is disproportionately higher (over 2.5 times) than the rate at which they shoot white people.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/polic...
Australia had the sycophantic Howard Government at the time, declassified documents [0] reveal the decision to go to war was taken primarily with a view to enhancing its alliance with the United States.
Other Australian Governments (eg: Keating or Whitlam, etc.) would, I hope, have told the US to bugger the hell right off .. or they would have grudgingly gone along on the basis of having mutual treaties (that didn't strictly apply to Rambo Missions).
The UK had Blair who apparently really really believed that the UK's "special relationship" with the US could temper their excesses in a rash post 9/11 PTSD induced revenge mission [1].
The handfull of lessor players were in it for the promised carrots (with a few having a minor twist of fear of the alternatives should they not go along - but the US at the time was over promising to gain paid allies).
[0] https://www.smh.com.au/interactive/2017/iraq-dossier/
[1] https://mwi.usma.edu/britains-blunder-united-kingdom-marched...
> we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military–industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals so that security and liberty may prosper together
Ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military%E2%80%93industrial_co...
- WMDs...were a lie. An obvious and intentional lie. A lie that no one seems to remember. Maybe our collective consciousness is too embarrassed?
-Aside from the shock & awe phase, there was little media coverage. Contrast that with Russia and Ukraine. Yet another subtle example of how The Media (at least in the USA) has lost its journalistic integrity.
- Opportunity cost. Combine Iraq with Afghanistan and that's a lot of lives, time and resources gone. Forever. Imagine even half of that used to move the needle in a positive direction.
- The Military Industrial Complex - It's not a conspiracy theory. It is real. The Biden Administration has push the DOD budget over $800 BILLION and was effectively met with crickets. Money we don't have to over-spend on things that we don't need.