For the answer of whether or not war is legal should be a no brainer. It involves killing and maiming of other men on a grand scale, and every society on the Earth has laws against the killing of another person. If you go and kill someone of the street, you are subject to being arrested and incarcerated and even executed in some cases. There are very few instances where killing another person is not punished severely in society, like self-defense, and even that does not hold in some places, killing is illegal, period. So when the same Governments that incarcerate and punish and execute their own citizens for killing other people go and say that they want to kill other people, that should be deemed illegal no matter what. After all, if the citizens are continually told that killing others is the worst thing that they can possibly do, then the Governments should be held to the same standards, because they are ostensibly the leaders of the people, and should be bound by the same laws and customs as the other people. However, no one is even saying that about this Iraq thing. All that Anna is pissed off about is the fact that no one waited until he decided on what he wanted to do. He did not go on and say that war is always illegal, and as head of the UN, he has to oppose it at all times, he just wanted to be the one that gave final approval for it. He seems to feel that as the head of the UN, that makes him head of some kind of superpower and that gives him authority to approve or reject wars. Now, the UN is not a country of any kind, it is just some kind of organization of nations that is supposed to be working for the benefit of mankind, specifically, the smaller and weaker nations of the world. However, Mr. Annan does not seem to feel that this is his responsibility. He seems to feel that he is the leader of some grand army that can do anything anywhere in the world. He feels that everyone has to wait for his permission before starting a major war, or else that war is illegal. The UN is obviously not an organization that helps the weak like it says, it is some kind of shadowy power that wages war if it feels the need to just like anyone else. Their saying that the Iraq war is illegal just because they did not give their expressed written permission for it to go ahead shows that they are just as greedy and power mad as anyone else. They are not some kind of kind international organization, they seem to feel that they are the supreme leaders of earth, and what they say goes and that's that. As those leaders, they are not bemoaning war and saying that it should never be fought, and that war is always illegal, they are just pissed off because they were cut out of the spoils of war. They are bickering with Washington over the money that the war generates because they want more of that money and Washington is keeping it to themselves. So Annan cries illegality, but he does not threaten to arrest to try those that are committing these allegedly illegal acts. The UN is not going to send any of its people to Washington to arrest president Bush or any pentagon dudes and try them for war crimes or anything like that. All these cries of illegality are nothing more than posturing from the UN. Their entire definition of illegality in this case is that they did not give their permission for the war.
America is no better in this scene either. They reject all of Annan's claims of illegality because they say that they do not need anyone's permission to go to war. Washington says that they do not have to listen to the UN because they are not a country, but an organization, one that has its base in America as well, and that organization has no authority to tell America what to do. Washington says that they are not bound by any International law or any other law either, and that they reserve the right to defend America as they see fit. The White House says that America goes beyond this narrow attitude when it comes to war, especially this one, because they say that America did not just blast into Iraq willy-nilly, that they did wait for UN permission before they did so, and they point to those two resolutions as proof of that. Washington says that they do not wage illegal wars, that America is above that, because they do indeed wait for the UN to say OK before they go. Once again, the very nature of a legal war is not addressed here, no one brings up whether or not they can actually be legal. The only issue seems to be who gave the permission to go to war, not whether or not it is ever legal to do that. President bush says that he is the only one that needs to give permission for America to do that, and Kofi Annan says that it is him that needs to do that. In this particular war, the battle is whether or not that permission was given or not and whether or not the whole thing is illegal because of that fact. The two sides continue to dicker back and forth about that and surely will for some time to come. Since there is no codified set of laws dealing with this issue, this is about as moot of a point as there is. The legality of the Iraq war is just something that is essentially meaningless. No one in Washington or the UN will ever stand trail over this, no matter how it comes out. Yes, they have tried to get that World Court thing together in the last few years, but that will be of no avail here, because America has refused to sign on to it, specifically because they do not recognize its authority and say that their leaders will never stand trial there for things like waging illegal wars. So no matter how people try and get war to go under some kind of legal system, they are never able to do it, because the general consensus seems to be that war is above the law and the only way that it is illegal is if someone feels that their permission was needed for it and ignored. In this case, the issue of legality will be batted back and forth between the UN and USA endlessly like some kind of macabre tennis match. Annan can go to the BBC or anyone else all he wants and cry illegality because he did not give his say-so on it, but the war in Iraq cannot be stopped now and won't be able to be stopped for a long time. Neither he nor any World court is going to do anything about it either, no matter what happens in Iraq, George W. Bush will not stand trial or be arrested for his role in the war there, about the only thing that can happen to him is to lose his re-election bid in November, and that only means that he goes into a cushy retirement earlier than he wanted to. For the issue of whether or not this war in Iraq is legal or illegal is just a bunch of hot air and rhetoric, the fact is that it has happened, and that it is continuing to happen, and that it will happen for a long time to come. The question of its legality is going to be left to historians and scholars who debate such things, long after the likes of Annan and Bush stop posturing in the media about whether or not proper permission was given and followed or not.
As everyone knows, the real losers in all of this are the people, both Iraqi and American. They are the ones that are being maimed and killed in this war, and no one is asking them if they think that it is illegal or not. That's because asking them would not produce the answer that Washington wants, for the poor beleagured people of Iraq and America would say that of course it is illegal, because they are dying in it left and right. All that they see is the killing and mayhem that accompany war and they feel that this has to be illegal because it is so bad. However , they have no say in it all, they just have to endure it all. It becomes very obvious that the only definition of a war's illegality is who wins that war. The losers are always waging an illegal war, while the victors are waging a legal one. The people that are caught in the middle of it all and who have to bear the brunt of the bullshit are always ignored and made to be insignificant. The men that wage war, whether or not it is America or the UN know full well that what they do is a crime against humanity, about as illegal as it gets. However, they do not care about that, all they care about is the short sighted shit that they obsess on that starts a war in the first place. The fact that they are perpetrating a crime on humanity is not an issue for them because they know that they can always go to the media and spin things their way and claim legality or illegality in a war, whatever suits their purpose. Every day in Iraq is another set of illegal shit perpetrated upon the people there,and who gave permission for it, or did not give permission for it is immaterial. Everyone knows that war is a crime, and is an illegal act no matter what. Putting semantics on the issue like the UN and USA are doing here does not change anything. It is a flat out joke to even suggest that a war is a legal thing like they are in this situation. Just because we have gone into the 21st century does not mean that any of that has changed at all. This Iraq war is as illegal as and World War or Civil war ever was and everyone knows that. All that this posturing is about between the UN and US is money like Washington says. The UN wants a bigger cut of it from Iraq and Washington says tough shit, you were not here when we started this. No do-gooder is going to come out of this and prosecute anyone and make war a thing of the past or anything close to that. Anyone that has the ability to do anything even remotely like that is not allowed to get into a position in society where they have the opportunity to do this. All that this pissing contest about whether the war is legal or not accomplishes is that Washington and the UN get to bat the blame for it back and forth, each blaming the other when things go wrong. Neither side will do anything to really remedy the situation, they will just bitch endlessly about it. The issue of legality will be used strictly as a political thing, a political football to be kicked around a bit. Both sides of this issue are making a mockery out of the whole thing by turning it into a political thing like that. The untold numbers of deaths that are coming out of this war certainly cannot be legal by anyone's definition. Mr. Annan and President Bush playing so sanctimonious about the whole thing just increase the illegality of it alland they do not care if they do. Mr. Annan will soon pass from the world scene, as he will eventually be replaced as Secretary-General of the UN, just as President Bush will eventually be replaced on the world stage as well, whether or not that will be next January or January 2009 is the only question about that. So, they do not care about the illegal shit that they are both part and parcel of, as they are both headed towards comfy retirements real soon. All this bullshit and posturing about legality is just about them trying to write their place in history, as just men that stood up to wrongs and so forth. Bush says that he is just because he has just been responding to a legitimate threat in a legal fashion, and Annan says that he is a person that has been trying to stop gross illegality and what it brings about through his position in society. Both of these fuckers are criminals that are complicit in an illegal act and they know it too, but due to the positions that they hold in society, neither of them will ever be punished for it , and the legality of that is the biggest shame of all. What should be illegal is the fact that men can be allowed to do the things that these two dudes have done in society, and sadly, that will probably never occur.