loquitur

<157> Host, I used the word "arguably" for a reason. This isn't cut and dry. And I never said it was 1441 that might have authorized the invasion; what I was referring to was the argument that the original ceasefire resolutions from 1991 could (note the word "could", not "must" - this is not stuff that is clear) be read to authorize resumption of hostilities upon breach by Iraq. Bear in mind that people's conceptions of the UN and its role (and the role of the US) will bear heavily on how they come out on this legal issue - it certainly affects yours, doesn't it?

It's dangerous to get yourself too invested in the legalisms on this issue, as if there is a single determinable right or wrong legal answer - this is foreign policy and power politics, and legalities tend to be invoked to justify whatever position someone wants to take. In my day to day life that's done, too, but there is a judge to decide who was right. In this context there isn't one, so invoking legalities is of limited usefulness other than to set the boundaries of the disagreement. That's useful, but it won't give you definitive answers in a particular case.

Roachboy, the Luttwak piece is the foreign policy equivalent of Pat Moynihan's "benign neglect" advice. I was recommending reading it mainly because of his observation (which to my eyes appears historically accurate) that Arab societies don't react to politics and war the way other societies do, that neither making nice nor getting tough appears to alter behavior. No doubt there are deep cultural reasons for it (and that's way beyond my expertise), but it certainly appears to be true. Germany and Japan, for instance, did some soul searching as a result of their loss in WW2 and fundamentally changed their societies to the point that they are almost aggressively pacifist - this after centuries of militarism and expansionism. The countries of the Middle East have been battered by the past century's events, yet appear not to have adapted much - free inquiry, status of women, tolerance of dissent, all are frowned on. It's a pity, too: half a billion people living in social structures that are a thousand years old. I don't know what can be done to change it or if it even is susceptible to change; greater minds than mine are wrestling with it.