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Departments War What Can the World Do if the US Attacks Iraq? When Egypt nationalized the Suez Canal in 1956, Britain, France, and Israel invaded Egypt and began advancing on the Suez Canal. U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower demanded that the invasion stop. Resolutions in the UN Security Council called for a cease-fire - but Britain and France vetoed them. Then the United States appealed to the General Assembly and proposed a resolution calling for a cease-fire and a withdrawal of forces. The General Assembly held an emergency session and passed the resolution. Britain and France withdrew from Egypt within a week. The appeal to the General Assembly was made under a procedure called "Uniting for Peace." This procedure was adopted by the Security Council so that the UN can act even if the Security Council is stalemated by vetoes. Resolution 377 provides that, if there is a "threat to peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression" and the permanent members of the Security Council do not agree on action, the General Assembly can meet immediately and recommend collective measures to U.N. members to "maintain or restore international peace and security." The "Uniting for Peace" mechanism has been used ten times, most frequently on the initiative of the United States. The Bush Administration is currently promoting a Security Council resolution that it claims will authorize it to attack Iraq. However, huge opposition from global public opinion and most of the world's governments make such a resolution's passage unlikely. What will happen if the US withdraws its resolution or the resolution is defeated? The US is currently indicating that it will attack Iraq even without Security Council approval. The US would undoubtedly use its veto should the Security Council attempt to condemn and halt its aggression. But the US has no veto in the General Assembly. Lawyers at the Center for Constitutional Rights (www.ccr-ny.org) have drafted a proposed "Uniting for Peace" resolution that governments can submit to the General Assembly. It declares that military action without a Security Council resolution authorizing such action is contrary to the UN Charter and international law. The global peace movement can begin right now to discuss the value of such a resolution. If we conclude it is worthwhile, we can make it a central demand, for example in the next round of global anti-war demonstrations. Then we can mobilize pressure on governments that claim to oppose the war -- the great majority of UN members -- to demand that they initiate and support such a resolution. Countries opposed to such a war can be asked to state now that, if there is a Security Council deadlock and a US attack on Iraq is imminent or under way, they will convene the General Assembly on an emergency basis to condemn the attack and order the US to cease fire and withdraw. The sooner global public discussion begins laying the groundwork for such action the better. Wide public advocacy will help governments overcome their probable reluctance to take such a step. Further, the threat of such global condemnation may help deter the Bush administration - and to a much greater extent deter its wobbling allies - from launching such an attack in the first place. [Prepared by Jeremy Brecher (jbrecher@igc.org). Information on Uniting for Peace based on "A U.N. Alternative to War: 'Uniting for Peace'" by Michael Ratner, Center for Constitutional Rights and Jules Lobel, University of Pittsburgh Law School www.ccr-ny.org ] |
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US to release 140 detainees from Guantanamo Bush II Foreign Policy: Naked Recklessness or is it Treason? Protesters Want U.S. Out of Iraq Corporations Are the Only Victors in Iraq Dems Scrap Plans To Look Into Claims White House Manipulated Intel On Iraqi Threat A question almost unthinkable Wolfowitz: Iraq Was Not Involved In 9-11 Terrorist Attacks, No Ties To Al-Qaeda Hope out of Quagmire: New peace movement opportunities Kucinich: U.S. Troops Out! White House Said In Jan It Used Info From Iraqi Exiles In Pres State of the Union Speech CIA Probe Finds Secret Pentagon Group Manipulated Intelligence on Iraqi Threat Letter from Peggy Gish, CPT Iraq 16 questions for Bush Is the Bush Doctrine Tenable? Wolfowitz Committee Instructed White House To Use Iraq/Uranium Ref In Pres Speech 'The Road to Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions' Trickle Down Lying; The Gamble Failed and it's Time for the Bush Regime to Pay, Starting with Cheney's Impeachment Tenet Fell on His Sword for 9-11 Too Like Iraq, CIA Also Exaggerated Soviet Nuclear Threat During Cold War CIA Intelligence Reports Seven Months Before 9-11 Said Iraq Posed No Threat To U.S., Containment Was Working CPT Report from Iraq Wolfowitz Sought To Undermine Blix So US Could Launch Preemptive Strike Against Iraq in 02 CPT Iraq Team reports from Iraq Anti-war music White House Silenced Experts Who Questioned Iraq Intel Info Six Months Before War Powell Denies Intelligence Failure In Buildup To War, But Evidence Doesn't Hold Up Was Always Based On Shaky Evidence And Wrong Intelligence Info Wolfowitz Admits Iraq War Planned Two Days After 9-11 Nuking Iraq Rover Lost in Paradise Despite Thin Intelligence Reports, US Plans To Overthrow Iranian Regime Defense Dept Secretly Tapped Halliburton Unit To Operate Iraq's Oil Industry In November Cheney’s Old Company Continues To Break Law’s While Profiting From Terror Michael Moore Was Right Other Hearts War Fact Sheet A contemporary chronology of Iraq Company Chosen By Pentagon To Extinguish Iraqi Oil Well Fires Has History Of Supporting Terrorist Regimes Rad Times Email Update 6 Iraq URL list How to Lose a War in Ten Days Rummy's Failed War Plan And The Casualties That May Result Transgendered anti-war protester verbally, physically abused by police Ohio Muslims open dialogue with FBI Women's Organizations Worldwide Urge General Assembly to "Unite for Peace" The Reality of War Sinks In With Casualties of U.S. and British Soldiers Statement to the Troops This War Is Illegal Message from Baghdad Vets To Top US Military Commanders: Remember Nuremberg A plea to Laura Bush to assume the Presidency Christian Peacemakers report from the Middle East Why I had to leave the cabinet No Support for War Forgery of evidence against Iraq will become easier, tonight Even As Bombs Drop, Hypocrisy Prevails Letters to Americans from Iraqi High School Students INTERNATIONAL LAW: A duty to disobey all unlawful orders Diplomacy and no first use of nukes urged in Iraq crisis Howard Dean's statement on the President's decision to send U.S. Military troops into war against Iraq Letter from Michael Moore to George W. Bush Pres Bush Reminds World of Iraq’s Crimes Against Humanity That His Father Failed To Punish Global Crisis: Grave Danger -- and Great Opportunity Rumsfeld, Bush Sr. Refused To Back 1989 UN Resolution To Investigate Iraq For Human Rights Abuses What Can the World Do if the US Attacks Iraq? U.S. Could Launch Attack Against North Korea While Troops Fight In Iraq, Rumsfeld Says With War Looming, Iraqi Oil Imports May Be Strained; Time To Open Up ANWR, GOP Says George W. Bush Must Answer to the People Bush Sr. Said In 1996 That War With Iraq `Would Turn Entire Arab World Against Us’ Bush and America's willing executioners would be guilty at Nuremberg For Six Years, Right-Wing Think Tank Has Been Hell-Bent For War Dennis Kucinich on CNN's Crossfire Questions about who set the oil well fires in Kuwait Words of Wisdom From An Armor Master U.S. Bombings Iraq attack will usher in New World Oil Order LEAKED WHITE HOUSE TRANSCRIPT: BUSH, CHENEY, ETC. Read War Articles by Year: |
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