http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20021028&s=zunes
Posted October 10, 2002
US Double Standards
by Stephen Zunes
The effort by the Bush Administration and Congress to portray the planned
invasion of Iraq as simply an effort to enforce United Nations Security
Council resolutions reaches a new low in double standards. A survey of the
nearly 1,500 resolutions passed by the Security Council, the fifteen-member
enforcement arm of the UN in which the United States and the four other
permanent members wield veto power, reveals more than ninety resolutions
currently violated by countries other than Iraq. The vast majority of these
violations are by governments closely allied to the United States. Not only
have the Bush Administration and its Congressional allies not suggested
invading these countries; the United States has blocked sanctions and other
means of enforcing them, and even provides the military and economic aid
that helps make ongoing violations possible.
For example, in 1975, after Morocco's invasion of Western Sahara and
Indonesia's invasion of East Timor, the Security Council passed a series of
resolutions demanding immediate withdrawal. However, then-US ambassador to
the UN Daniel Patrick Moynihan bragged that "the Department of State desired
that the United Nations prove utterly ineffective in whatever measures it
undertook. The task was given to me, and I carried it forward with no
inconsiderable success." East Timor finally won its freedom in 1999.
Moroccan forces still occupy Western Sahara. Meanwhile, Turkey remains in
violation of Security Council Resolution 353 and more than a score of
resolutions calling for its withdrawal from northern Cyprus, which Turkey, a
NATO ally, invaded in 1974.
The most extensive violator of Security Council resolutions is Israel.
Israel's refusal to respond positively to the formal acceptance this past
March by the Arab League of the land-for-peace formula put forward in
Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 arguably puts Israel in violation
of these resolutions, long seen as the basis for Middle East peace. More
clearly, Israel has defied Resolutions 267, 271 and 298, which demand that
it rescind its annexation of greater East Jerusalem, as well as dozens of
other resolutions insisting that Israel cease its violations of the Fourth
Geneva Convention, such as deportations, demolition of homes, collective
punishment and seizure of private property. Unlike some of the hypocritical
and meanspirited resolutions passed by the UN General Assembly, like the
now-rescinded 1975 resolution equating Zionism with racism, these Security
Council resolutions are well grounded in international law and were passed
with US support or abstention. Security Council Resolutions 446, 452 and 465
require that Israel evacuate all its illegal settlements on occupied Arab
lands. The United States, however, now insists that the fate of the
settlements is a matter for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. The US
decision to help fund Israel's construction of Jewish-only "bypass roads" in
the occupied West Bank to connect the illegal settlements with Israel puts
the United States in violation of Article 7 of Resolution 465, which
prohibits member states from facilitating Israel's colonization drive.
The violations of Security Council resolutions by American allies stand in
contradiction to the UN Charter and Geneva Conventions, longstanding and
universally applied foundations of international law. The sections of
Security Council Resolution 687 (demanding Iraqi disarmament) currently
violated by Iraq, in contrast, are unprecedented infringements of
traditional concepts of national sovereignty and apply to that country only.
According to Articles 41 and 42 of the UN Charter, no member state has the
right to enforce any resolution militarily unless the Security Council
determines that there has been a material breach of the resolution, decides
that all nonmilitary means of enforcement have been exhausted and
specifically authorizes the use of military force. This is what the council
did in November 1990 with Resolution 678 in response to Iraq's occupation of
Kuwait, which violated a series of resolutions passed that August demanding
Iraq's withdrawal. When Iraq finally complied by withdrawing from Kuwait in
March 1991, this resolution became moot.
If the United States can unilaterally claim the right to invade Iraq because
of that country's violations of Security Council resolutions, other council
members could logically claim the right to invade states that are also in
violation; for example, Russia could claim the right to invade Israel,
France could claim the right to invade Turkey and Britain could claim the
right to invade Morocco. The US insistence on the right to attack
unilaterally could seriously undermine the principle of collective security
and the authority of the UN, and in so doing would open the door to
international anarchy.
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