Re: Reply to Marc Cooper

[Jon Johanning <jjohanning@xxxxxxx>]

On Monday, September 16, 2002, at 01:48  PM, Chris Brady wrote:

> MY QUESTION TO YOU (in the context of bourgeois norms):
> Could it have been possible that the Taliban would have actually
> honoured the legal form, and Al Q & Bin Laden been brought up on
> charges?
> Could the perpatrators of the crimes of 9-11(US) met justice--
> and without the mass murder of Afghanis?

I'm afraid I'm not enough of an expert on the Taliban and other similar
groups to answer that. But I don't see any way they could have been
"arrested" to face charges. There isn't any supranational authority at
this point that could have done it. The U.S. govt could have, of course,
scraped together a few more allies (as it is now trying to do vis-a-vis
Iraq), but it would still have obviously been a U.S.-led expeditionary
force.

"International law" at this point is still just lex talionis -- the law
of the claw.

> And perhaps offers some hint as to why the USA avoids legal means in
> some cases --while posing as the law.

It avoids legal means whenever it wants to, and thinks it can get away
with it. But so does every other country that has any power. It's the
law of the jungle -- with the deer and sheep pleading with the lions and
tigers to "obey the legal norms of the international community." The big
cats' reply? "Yum-yum! Munch, munch, munch."


Jon Johanning // jjohanning@xxxxxxx
________________________________
How good bad music and bad reasons sound when we march against an
enemy. -- Nietzsche


~~~~~~~
PLEASE clip all extraneous text before replying to a message.