Forgetting International Law

Michael Kinsley explains how the United States is being quite selective in its defense of international law. We embrace those norms when convenient and subvert them when we find them inconvenient. He explains:

At the beginning of Gulf War II, we forgot . . . we forgot . . . we forgot . . . oh, yes: international law. We forgot international law once again. When the U.N. Security Council would not play ball, we declared that our own invasion of Iraq was justified as a sovereign act of long-term self-defense against potential weapons of mass destruction, by the human rights situation in Iraq and by the hope that removing Saddam Hussein will start a chain reaction of democracy and freedom in the Middle East. Don't bother us with your petty i-dotting and t-crossing: We're thinking big here.

But that kind of talk is so very last week. Come to think of it, it was just last week. Today our head's in a very different space and we're extremely concerned about violations of international law. Specifically, we're deeply offended by Iraq's violations of the Geneva Conventions in showing U.S. prisoners of war on TV. We're also angry that some Iraqi soldiers are waving the white flag in fake surrenders and violating the rules of war in other ways.

But the United States needs to understand how our selective flouting of international law reduces our national security and can lead our citizens being harmed.