Why do so many in the world question our President?

(A reader’s contribution) 

Why do so many in the world question our president?

Perhaps it is because we have become a world of mindless zombies?  Who will Joe Millionaire pick? Who will America marry next?  Television shows are hyped as ‘Reality T.V.’, but are so far from what true leaders and intellectuals must deal with.  Perhaps Americans and others in the European block have become jaded by all the violence and mayhem that is reported daily on the news so that they have turned inward and fill small lives with the voyeuristic view of reality television.

 

We must answer, what is real?

 

Real are the crosses that decorate the shores of Normandy.  Real is the memories of the American GI’s who lost their lives in a war they did not start, but for the freedom of people’s around the world felt they must join and finish.

 

Real is the fact that the world community has turned a blind eye to the crimes of Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi state!

 

Take for instance that in the London Agreement of 8 August 1945, war crimes and crimes against humanity were defined as such:

a) Crimes against Peace. Initiation of invasions of other countries and wars of aggression in violation of international laws and treaties, including but not limited to planning, preparation, initiation or waging a war of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements, or assurances, or participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the foregoing. 

b) War Crimes. Atrocities or offences against persons or property, constituting violations of the laws or customs of war, including but not limited to, murder, ill treatment or deportation to slave labour or for any other purpose of civilian population from occupied territory, murder or ill treatment of prisoners of war or persons on the seas, killing of hostages, plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns or villages, or devastation not justified by military necessity. 

c) Crimes against Humanity. Atrocities and offences, including but not limited to murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation, imprisonment, torture, rape, or other inhumane acts committed against any civilian population, or persecutions on political, racial or religious grounds whether or not in violation of the domestic laws of the country where perpetrated. . . .

It could be said that Saddam Hussein has already broken all of these laws, but as they were written for definition and use during the Nuremburg trials for German criminals we must turn to the holier-than-thou UN.  Perhaps this may ring some bells…

Having considered the declaration made by the General Assembly of the United Nations in its resolution 96 (I) dated 11 December 1946 that genocide is a crime under international law, contrary to the spirit and aims of the United Nations and condemned by the civilized world,

Recognizing that at all periods of history genocide has inflicted great losses on humanity, and

Being convinced that, in order to liberate mankind from such an odious scourge, international co-operation is required,

Hereby agree as hereinafter provided:

Article 1

The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish.

Article 2

In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Article 3

The following acts shall be punishable:

(a) Genocide;

(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;

(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;

(d ) Attempt to commit genocide;

(e) Complicity in genocide.

Article 4

Persons committing genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III shall be punished, whether they are constitutionally responsible rulers, public officials or private individuals.

Article 5

The Contracting Parties undertake to enact, in accordance with their respective Constitutions, the necessary legislation to give effect to the provisions of the present Convention, and, in particular, to provide effective penalties for persons guilty of genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III.

Article 6

Persons charged with genocide or any of the other acts enumerated in article III shall be tried by a competent tribunal of the State in the territory of which the act was committed, or by such international penal tribunal as may have jurisdiction with respect to those Contracting Parties which shall have accepted its jurisdiction.

Article 7

Genocide and the other acts enumerated in article III shall not be considered as political crimes for the purpose of extradition.

The Contracting Parties pledge themselves in such cases to grant extradition in accordance with their laws and treaties in force.

Oh really?

It continues on after this to speak of the legal ramifications that leaders or civilians have with the UN tribunal and so on so forth.  This particular article, being of Article XIII of the UN was entered into force January 12^th of 1951.  I was curious as to which countries may have ratified such a brilliant piece of work.  Let me enlighten you of just a few:

Afghanistan 22 Mar 1956, Bosnia and Herzegovina3 29 Dec 1992, China4,5 20 Jul 1949 18 Apr 1983, France 11 Dec 1948 14 Oct 1950, Germany8,9 24 Nov 1954 a, Iran (Islamic Republic of) 8 Dec 1949 14 Aug 1956, Kuwait 7 Mar 1995 a, United Kingdom 30 Jan 1970 a, United States of America 11 Dec 1948 25 Nov 1988, Iraq 20 Jan 1959 a.

Oh that last is my favorite!  Iraq.  Maddening isn’t it?  Why has Saddam not been dragged in front of The Hague yet?  Note also that Bosnia and Herzegovina signed on in 1992.  Right about now Slobo (Milosevic that is) is probably still cursing that move.  He and his cronies may never receive judgment, but they will never live a free day again either.

I believe the total number of UN resolutions passed against Iraq is now at 16.  Still Chancellor Gerhard and Pres. Jacques Chirac of Germany and France respectively want us to wait, to give the inspections time.  To let the inspectors do their job.  They are winning the war of public opinion leading everyone to believe that the inspectors are supposed to find a smoking gun.  Perhaps Bush needs to remind the world that resolution 1441 only specifies that the inspectors are to look for evidence and proof that the Iraqis have disarmed, and if proof of disarmament cannot be located, or if the Iraqis lie or try to deceive the inspectors about disarmament, then “serious consequences” will apply.  Why is this so hard to understand?

Instead these two leaders, who continue to thump their chests that Iraq must disarm, now want to introduce a memorandum to the UN that will lay out a timetable and schedule for Iraq to disarm.  Perhaps I am mistaken but I thought that disarmament was supposed to happen 12 years ago?  How much more time do you give a tyrant like Hussein?  I only hope that should I break the law I am given free reign and more than 12 years to hide my evidence also.  I think I will pen a letter to all the world’s foreign leaders and tell them to keep the police away from me.  The UN should have sent “the Smurfs” out already to arrest Saddam.  Read further to relive some of his crimes against humanity.

In the last Gulf War 19 American servicemen and 2 servicewomen were held captive by Iraq.  All 21 of the POWs suffered physical abuse.  Our American servicemen were beaten, electrocuted, urinate and spat upon.  They suffered broken bones, torn muscles, chipped teeth, perforated eardrums, massive beatings and bruising, and one of the women was sexually molested.  Add to this the fact that Kuwaitis and Iraqis who have escaped the madmen of Saddam’s regime tell of torture with electric drills, death in acid baths and gang rapes of adolescent girls in front of family members.

Marine Corps Captain Michael Craig Berryman remembers it well.  One of Saddam’s men slammed a metal pipe below his left knee breaking his fibula.  Another began beating him with an axe handle, and a third burnt him with a lit cigarette in the face, ears, eyes, nose, forehead, and a cut in his neck.  These are the people the French and Germans and every other peacenik liberal tree-hugger like Sheryl Crow want to protect.  Perhaps, they don’t want to protect these men, but it is who they help harbor with every sign they raise in protest.  Perhaps they should revisit pictures of dead Kurdish mothers still clasping their infant children, also dead and cold, lying in the dirt of their village streets.  It wasn’t “the” plague that laid them waste, but a plague named Saddam Hussein.

What of the Iraqi people, these people that we hear so much of from the peace loving world?  The people that Bush says he wants to liberate and others say we will only make collateral damage of?  They pray for our forces to come invading.  You only need look at the economic evidence.  Iraqi real estate investments are skyrocketing.  Prices of land and homes are doubling and tripling.  Mahmoud Yassin even received 36 times the value of a home he purchased along the street shared by the now vacant US embassy.  He stands to make a killing as he had bought three such homes after the first Gulf War.  An Iraqi real estate agent was recently quoted as saying “people are used to the bombardment in the no-fly zones.  They know that ordinary houses are not normally a target.”  Geez, even the common Iraqi citizen knows we don’t aim to wipe them off the face of the earth!

Melinda Liu writing for Newsweek reported recently that while visiting a café in Baghdad she sat listening to perhaps 100 old men packed on long benches at tables.  What they had to say to her was quite interesting.  “Iraqis love American people. We don’t believe in hate,” said one.  Another piped in with, “To fight a war you need an enemy.  There will be very little resistance here.”  But by far my favorite quote was this, “People are tired of the way things are and they want a change.  Only the Americans can change things.”

Only the Americans can change things… If only the world community and many of our own citizens could see their way to let us.

D-