"Exciting, original, and completely convincing . . . This book is essential reading for anybody who wants to understand how the law really works in international affairs, and it throws a great deal of light on those international affairs themselves." Edward S. Herman "This closely reasoned and carefully documented study is sad and grim, and necessary. Unless its lessons are heeded by citizens of the rich and powerful states, the fate of the world will be left to the whim of those with the guns and the faith to enforce their will." Noam Chomsky They call it "collateral damage," but legally and morally it is really mass murder. In Kosovo, America claimed its war was a "humanitarian intervention," in Afghanistan, "self-defense," and in Iraq, it claimed the authority of the Security Council of the United Nations. Yet each of these wars was illegal according to established rules of international law. According to these rules, illegal wars fall within the category of "supreme international crimes". So how come the war crimes tribunals never manage to turn their sights on America and always wind up putting America's enemies -- "the usual suspects" -- on trial? This new book by renowned scholar Michael Mandel offers a critical account of America's illegal wars and a war crimes system that has granted America's leaders an unjust and dangerous impunity, effectively encouraging their illegal wars and the war crimes that always flow from them. "Exciting, original, and completely convincing ... This book is essential reading for anybody who wants to understand how the law really works in international affairs, and it throws a great deal of light on those international affairs themselves." --Edward S. Herman "This closely reasoned and carefully documented study is sad and grim, and necessary. Unless its lessons are heeded by citizens of the rich and powerful states, the fate of the world will be left to the whim of those with the guns and the faith to enforce their will." --Noam Chomsky 'Exciting, original, and completely convincing. This book is essential reading for anybody who wants to understand how the law really works in international affairs, and it throws a great deal of light on those international affairs themselves' 'This closely reasoned and carefully documented study is sad and grim, and necessary. Unless its lessons are heeded by citizens of the rich and powerful states, the fate of the world will be left to the whim of those with the guns and the faith to enforce their will. The prospects are not attractive' Michael Mandel is Professor of Law at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto, Canada. He has also taught law at universities in Italy and in Israel, and frequently appears as a commentator on radio and television both in Canada and abroad. In 1999 he led an international effort to have NATO leaders prosecuted for crimes against humanity committed during the Kosovo war. He is currently co-Chair of Lawyers Against the War, founded in Canada in 2001 with members in thirteen countries. He is a contributor to Beyond September 11: An Anthology of Dissent, edited by Phil Scraton (Pluto Press, 2002). How America Gets Away With Murder Illegal Wars, Collateral Damage and Crimes Against Humanity By Michael Mandel Pluto Press Copyright © 2004 Michael Mandel All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-7453-2151-6 Contents Acknowledgments, ix, Frequently Cited Sources, x, Part I. Illegal Wars/Collateral Damage, 1, 1. Iraq 2003, 3, 2. Afghanistan 2001, 29, 3. Kosovo 1999, 57, Part II. Crimes Against Humanity, 115, 4. The War Crimes Tribunal, 117, 5. The Trial of Milosevic, 147, 6. America Gets Away with Murder, 176, 7. Rounding up the Usual Suspects while America Gets Away with Murder, 207, Notes, 254, Index, 293, CHAPTER 1 Iraq 2003 America's war on Iraq in 2003 was its third illegal war in just under four years. Each one was a bloody horror, but the Iraq war distinguished itself both for its bloodiness and for the flagrancy of its illegality. It was virtually certified as illegal by a defeat at the Security Council so unspinnable that President Bush had to back down from his boast to make the members 'show their cards' by forcing a vote. The illegality of the Iraq war was not due to some lawyer's technicality. The reasons for it (explored later in this chapter) were the same as the reasons for the defeat at the Security Council: the failure of the United States to demonstrate one decent moral justification for resort to war, with all the death and destruction that were sure to follow. The United Nations weapons inspections had turned up nothing, and, despite crude attempts by the Americans and the British to discredit the inspectors before the war with phony intelligence – 'risk assessment enhancement ' as the American comic strip Doonesbury called it – they themselves would do no better when they scoured the country afterwards. There was admittedly no