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Authorized Violence

© lawhawk

The United Nations is currently knee deep in the current problems in the Middle East. UN Arms Inspectors are trying to evaluate whether Iraq is violating the terms of the agreement signed following the 1991 Persian Gulf War. At that time, Iraq was told not to do any further work on its weapons of mass destruction program. It was told that to do so would cause further economic sanctions.

Iraq continues to insist that they aren't working on a weapons program but they have chosen not to allow the UN Arms Inspectors access to all areas of the country. At this point, the international law under which the UN is operating and nation-state sovereignty under which Iraq is asserting its rights over its own territory come into conflict.

The conflict over whether the UN, a supra-national governmental organization, has power over nations to conduct international affairs is one that has long plagued the institution. Opponents to the UN have long complained that by allowing the UN to act as it should, member states are giving up their rights as sovereigns to act in their personal best interests.

However, the UN Charter declares that all member states are sovereign and are entitled to certain rights to defend itself against attack. This self-defense mechanism of the UN Charter (Article 51) would allow a member state to attack an aggressive enemy without having to first rely upon the UN to act. It was under the color of this clause that could have allowed Israel to attack Iraq for its launch of 39 Scud Missiles at Israeli territory during the Persian Gulf War or for Iraq to have attacked Israel for Israel's aircraft strike against a claimed nuclear weapons production facility.

In the current situation, Iraq is once again threatening to attack Israel unilaterally should the US, acting under UN color of authority, should launch an attack to force Iraqi compliance with UN inspections. Israel has signaled that they will not stand idly by as missiles rain down on their country as they did in 1991. They have claimed that Iraq will pay for any transgressions and most authorities of international law would say they are within their rights to do so.

With the crisis between the US and Iraq being very close to breaking out in open hostilities, the Israeli Authorities aren't taking chances and have begun distributing gas masks and information to their citizens and updating the gas masks from the 1991 War. While they all hope that a conflict doesn't come, the Israelis are well prepared to meet this potential threat with deadly and violent force of their own.

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