In 1983 the United States in a coalition with several other Caribbean nations invaded Grenada. We did this without a U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing that military action. The Prime Minister of Grenada had been executed, and the persons who had overthrown his government had not secured legitimacy, but still, the United States, a massive nation, invaded a small nation without permission from the United Nations.
In 1989 the United States again invaded a nation without permission from the United Nations Security Council. Armed forces of the United States invaded Panama, and captured the president of Panama. The Government of the United States claimed that Panamanian leadership was corrupt, and was violating Panamanian law, and was violating the neutrality of the Panama Canal, and was taking away the human rights of Panamanians, but still, the United States, a superpower, invaded a smaller nation without permission from the United Nations.
In 2003 the United States and a coalition of other states again invaded a nation without authorization of the United Nations Security Council. A coalition of forces invaded Iraq with the intention of changing the government in Iraq. The United States had made a case in the United Nations for this invasion, but while making this case, evidence of Iraqi preparations for aggression against other states was produced, and much of that evidence was based on lies and fabrications made by some members of the American government. The falsity of this evidence was not known by many of the American political and military leadership at the time, but a faction within the government that wanted to invade Iraq used the bad evidence to justify their arguments that an invasion was necessary for self defense.
Other members of the United Nations have invaded other nations and removed bloodthirsty dictators. Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1979, removing a murderous government there. Tanzania invaded Uganda in 1978 and removed from power a terrible dictator there. During the area of decolonization, in 1961 the people of Goa were incorporated into India after an invasion of the Portuguese colony by the Indian military. Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975, and held it as a part of Indonesia until 2002 when Timor-Leste regained its independence.
The Soviet Union invaded Hungary in 1956, Czechoslovakia in 1968, and Afghanistan in 1979. North Vietnam invaded South Vietnam in 1975. North Korea invaded South Korea in 1950. Only in the case of Korea has the United Nations forcefully intervened to stop such aggression.
These instances of the United Nations framework’s failure to stop invasions and war, even in three cases in which the United States was a perpetrator of these violations of the U.N. Charter, created a precedent in which The government of Russia may have believed it could successfully conquer Ukraine. We must change the framework of the United Nations to make an end to these invasions. The United States is ready to commit to a new regime of International peace in which nations give up their sovereign ability to wage these invasions of conquest and regime change. We would like to commit in a binding way to some new arrangement where humanitarian interventions can be quickly permitted, but invasions to install different regimes or to conquer a member state become utterly impossible. This new regime should assure all nations of their security, so that no nation need fear invasion. No nation should have the ability to veto United Nations resolutions to protect the sovereignty of a member state from invasion. When a state does invade another state with the intention of installing a different regime or incorporating the conquered state into its territory, all member state must commit most forcefully to totally isolate the offending aggressor state.
Permission to invade to change a regime on humanitarian grounds must be secured before any such invasions will be permitted, and any state voting in a successful vote for such interventions must commit troops or material and financial aid to the project of occupying a state that requires such a humanitarian intervention. In cases where states have rival claimants to represent the legitimate government, the United Nations must determine whether there is a consensus to recognize one legitimate government or whether no claimant receives a United Nations endorsement as the legitimate government. Only in cases where a state has been determined by the United Nations to lack a legitimate government may any state intervene to support one of rival claimants to legitimacy. Otherwise, interventions can only be for the UN-recognized legitimate government of that state.
The veto power in the Security Council could continue for other resolutions, but in matters of invasions for regime change or conquest, the permanent members’ votes do not have veto power.
No comments:
Post a Comment