h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Looks like the Empire is just about ready to take the gloves off. We have convinced the population that war is necesary, and now we have Americans being bloodied on national news. Next the reports of civilian resistance, exiles returning from abroad to resist coalition forces, and the inevitable "guerrilla tactics." Just what Dubya needs to desensitize the American population to what will soon become a cauldron of civilian body parts as we allow the Iraqis to experience real war. Carpet bombing, artillery brought to bear on cities, and the incineration of population centers. All while the American public slowly gets accustomed to the idea of conquering as opposed to liberating. These are wicked times indeed.

This is about the most restrained combat possible. I'm impressed by the restraint.

You would be, wouldn't you?

I should probably add that it's too bad the alleged restraint didn't include refraining from waging an illegal war in the first place, but that's just one of those pesky details that keeps getting lost in the euphoria of conquest.

Obviously, I don't think it's illegal.

Obviously!

Now does your definition of illegal war ever include a war fought by the United States?

I'm not sure a war can be illegal. I can't think of anything war that jumps out at me.

There are unlawful acts of war, but I can't think of how you would have an illegal war.

So, if George goes to war without any kind of Congressional approval, even fudge factor approval, it's still legal right?

Oh, I thought you were talking about international law.

As the commander-in-cheif, he has the legal authority to deploy troops as he sees fits. I don't really like it when we engage in undeclared wars. The War Powers Act allows the president to go forward without prior approval of Congress, although I don't think that any president has recognized the restrictions of the War Powers Act. The House and Senate voted on a resolution last year that authorized the use of military force.

The problem with the War Powers Act is that it's a rather complicated solution to a problem that shouldn't have arisen in the first place if people had just paid attention to the Constitution.

The president doesn't need emergency powers to make war even now. There's always been plenty of time to deliberate on that stuff, around a year for the Iraq thing for example. And there should be time to deliberate. It's not a trivial decision to go to war.

That there is plenty of time is because the United States has rarely been attacked although its colonial business interests frequently run afoul of local sensibilities, not to mention human rights and rights to self-determination, and often incur retaliation. Then the miserable, greedy assholes complain that the government needs to protect them.

That's when the prez wants to repay his campaign contribution debts without subjecting them to the scrutiny of Congress. And that in turn is why the government came up with the ridiculously convoluted system of war powers and concurrent resolutions in place of declarations of war.

This Cold War relic baloney does nothing more than insure contracts for greedy corporate interests interested in peddling those atrociously nasty and expensive weapons systems that have limited markets in the third world because those people can't afford them, but become the most vulnerable victims of them.

To that we can now add contracts for rebuilding infrastructure the United States destroys in its extremist preemptive war doctrine applications. No one seems to be asking why the people whose infrastructure was destroyed don't get to rebuild it and contract with American companies if they choose.

That's because the purpose of the exercise is not to encourage self-determination or democracy or any other bilge of that nature but to make such preemptive excursions profitable for a few well-connected corporate cronies of the president. Bechtel might not get the contract if it were left up to the local people to decide.

This in turn makes such war waging much too profitable to ever be legal, even in the international sense. International law tries to foster peace not encourage war with economic incentives.