A Nation Above the Law

opinion by Tom Krebsbach

Recently it was reported that former Chilean strongman Augusto Pinochet had been fingerprinted and photographed following his indictment for human rights violations committed during his tenure as president of Chile. His lawyer called it "an affront to a former President of the Republic." But a spokesman for the Chilean government said it "shows that in Chile all citizens are equal before the law."

The booking of Pinochet demonstrates that national leaders can no longer carry out crimes against humanity and remain immune to legal repercussions. It also signals that much of the world is converging toward a position of support for human rights and international law. What a shame that the United States is currently marching in the opposite direction!

The American/British invasion of Iraq in 2003 was a blatant example of a war of aggression, the ultimate crime against human dignity. The vast majority of scholars of international law throughout the world view this military intervention as illegal and illegitimate. Still, the US Congress has done nothing to hold the people who planned and launched this act of aggression accountable.

Initiation of aggressive war is a clear violation of the Charter of the United Nations. Because the US signed and ratified the treaty establishing the United Nations, we are bound by the US Constitution to abide by the terms of the UN Charter. Article VI of the Constitution states that treaties we sign and ratify are "the Supreme law of the Land". In launching a war in violation of the UN Charter, President Bush has effectively violated the US Constitution.

David Logan

Sadly, the Bush administration and many members of Congress seem more committed to upholding American Exceptionalism than the US Constitution and basic principles of American democracy.

In its most pernicious form, American Exceptionalism is the notion that US sovereignty should remain unfettered by the constraints of international law because America is a nation which is militarily and morally superior to other nations. It is a repugnant and chauvinistic ideal, exuding arrogance and trumpeting elitism. In effect it promotes a double standard which is antithetical to the most basic and sacred tenets of American democracy: that all men are created equal and that our democracy is founded upon the rule of law.

If we truly believe in the equality of mankind, we cannot then demand an exalted status under the law. If we are a nation which upholds the rule of law, we will not allow our leaders to transgress the most fundamental international law, largely established as the result of US efforts, and not be held accountable.

Though many are outraged by the lawless behavior of Bush and his administration, their greatest outrage should be reserved for the US Congress. In passing House Joint Resolution 114 in the fall of 2002, Congress unconstitutionally provided Bush carte blanche to wage war on Iraq at any time and in any manner he chose.

When he launched war in March 2003 against the will of the UN Security Council, few in Congress spoke out against the illegality of his actions. Now, almost three years later, there is little movement in Congress to hold Bush accountable, even though the war has brought great death and misery to the people of Iraq and the US.

The inability of Congress to hold Bush and his aides accountable is a failure to uphold the most basic principles of America and a failure to defend the US Constitution. The failure is bi-partisan. Democrats in Congress have essentially relinquished their role as an opposition party.

Consider the example of Senator Clinton of New York. Needing to burnish her patriotic credentials for a projected run for the presidency, Ms. Clinton deems it appropriate to co-sponsor a law criminalizing burning of the flag. But she has no qualms about Bush violating the UN Charter and the US Constitution in launching an unprovoked invasion of Iraq which has led to the unnecessary deaths of tens of thousands. How ironic it is that Senator Clinton and other Democrats are effectively nullifying the legacy of a giant of the Democratic Party. It was Franklin Delano Roosevelt who pressed for creation of the United Nations and its Charter in an effort to eliminate the scourge of war from the face of the earth.

The failings of Senator Clinton are representative of the political pandering and spineless behavior of many in Congress. They have failed miserably in their constitutional duty of oversight. They have rendered the safeguard of checks and balances inoperative.

America has reached a critical moment in its history where ordinary, patriotic, law-abiding Americans must shoulder the responsibility of rectifying the state of the union. Citizen demand for accountability and respect for the law should roar and echo across Capitol Hill until it cannot be ignored. Any members of Congress, unable to muster the courage to carry out their constitutional duties, should be replaced with honorable men and women who will uphold the principles upon which this country was founded.

In 1945, US Supreme Court Justice and chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg Tribunal, Robert Jackson, wrote, "If certain acts in violation of treaties are crimes they are crimes whether the United States does them or whether Germany does them, and we are not prepared to lay down a rule of criminal conduct against others which we would not be willing to have invoked against us." The repudiation of the hypocrisy and double standard of American Exceptionalism could not have been stated more clearly. It is all too obvious the current US Congress has forgotten these historic words.

Tom Krebsbach is the founder of Citizens for Accountability on Iraq, (www.iraqaccountability.org), a citizens' movement demanding accountability for the Iraq war.