I look hard but fail to see a moral or logical compass in Chomsky’s fast and loose recital of dates and deaths. In the end, his argument reduces to two basic principles. If someone other than the United States commits mass murder they did so with American encouragement, and so the guilt is ultimately Washington’s. Or they did it in response to American actions, which either exonerates them or in some way mitigates their crime.
Ian Williams angrily denied that "NATO air raids on Serbia [beginning March 24 1999] actually precipitated the worst atrocities in Kosovo" and charged that it is deeply immoral for me to say so, "like claiming that the British air raids on Germany precipitated the Nazi gas chambers."
Untitled Document
Kofi Annan’s greatest achievement as UN secretary general was his deft steering of the UN General Assembly to accept the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine at the 2005 World Summit.
As part of our Empire Strategic Focus, Foreign Policy In Focus asked several experts to weigh in on whether Responsibility to Protect (R2P) is an important step forward for the international system or a step backward to great power intervention, and how should the Obama administration approach this doctrine. Shaun Randol strongly embraced the new principle, Trevor Keck and Bridget Moix emphasized the preventative aspects of R2P, and Kevin Fake and Steven Funk offered a skeptical appraisal. In this dialogue, they take the conversation one step further.
“The mice would be disciplined and the lions would be free,” said a Mexican delegate to the proceedings that created the UN charter in 1945. He astutely predicted the double standards that would govern the application of international law.
China’s arguments against Taiwanese self-determination are not particularly legal or ethical. They boil down to the fact that Beijing has over a billion people, a huge economy, and over 900 missiles pointing at the nearby island.
Although the American media generally depicted Kofi Annan’s end-of-term reform package for the United Nations as a failure, its achievements are by no means negligible. The cup is certainly more than half full. Frankly some of the Âfailures, such as reform of the Security Council, were not only entirely predictable but relatively benign as well. Above all, the successful adoption of the ÂResponsibility to Protect at last year’s summit far outweighs any perceived or alleged failures in mere administrative reform. Such a framework of principles to protect human rights goes directly to what many of the world’s people expect of the organization.