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Puck
The Texan
Joined: 05 Jan 2004
Posts: 5596
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 Thu Sep 16, 2004 7:39 am Annan: Iraq war was 'illegal' |
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Annan: Iraq war was 'illegal'
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The U.S. decision to go to war in Iraq without the approval of the U.N. Security Council was "illegal," Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the BBC on Wednesday.
"I hope we do not see another Iraq-type operation for a long time -- without U.N. approval and much broader support from the international community," he said in an interview with the BBC World Service.
The U.N. Charter allows nations to take military action with Security Council approval as an explicit enforcement action, such as during the Korean War and the 1991 Gulf War.
But in 2003, in the build-up to the Iraq war, the United States dropped an attempt to get a Security Council resolution approving the invasion when it became apparent it would not pass.
At the time, Annan had underlined the lack of legitimacy for a war without U.N. approval, saying: "If the United States and others were to go outside the Security Council and take unilateral action they would not be in conformity with the Charter."
On Wednesday, after being asked three times whether the lack of council approval for the war meant it was illegal, he said: "From our point of view and the U.N. Charter point of view it was illegal."
He also said that the wave of violence engulfing Iraq puts in doubt the national elections scheduled for January.
There could not be "credible elections if the security conditions continue as they are now," he told the BBC.
On Tuesday, Annan's top envoy to Iraq, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, said the security situation will be the overriding factor in determining how many U.N. international staffers can return to Iraq. There is now a ceiling of 35 U.N. staff in the country.
Qazi spoke Tuesday at a Security Council meeting called to discuss Annan's latest report on Iraq, which warned that violence could make it more difficult to create the conditions for successful elections. Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi has said he is determined to hold the election by Jan. 31.
The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Danforth, all but ruled out any delay beyond the January 31 deadline for elections in Iraq's interim constitution.
"Let there be no doubt: we are committed to this timetable," he told council members Tuesday.
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Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/09/16/iran.annan.ap/index.html
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Well after 12 years of letting Saddam roam free and violate the orders that were imposed on him, I think it became pretty clear that the UN wasn't really concerned about it, and that they were not going to get concerned about it any time soon. 
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Dirt
Exercise Boy
Joined: 19 May 2003
Posts: 2086
Location: a tree
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| Thu Sep 16, 2004 8:33 am |
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How did the UN let Saddam violate the sanctions that were imposed on Iraq if I may ask? Must have been that pile of WMDs huh? 
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Jeremy
J's Guy
Joined: 03 Oct 2002
Posts: 7823
Location: Aberdeen, Scotland
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| Thu Sep 16, 2004 9:14 am |
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The UN is totally useless, they never do anything, and if they do then it is too late.
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Dirt
Exercise Boy
Joined: 19 May 2003
Posts: 2086
Location: a tree
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| Thu Sep 16, 2004 9:17 am |
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What about the world food thingie, the educational thingie etc? The UN consists out of more than just the security council you know....
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LightningBoy
Commodore
Joined: 09 Mar 2003
Posts: 1446
Location: Minnesota, U.S.A.
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| Thu Sep 16, 2004 10:05 am |
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YEAH... Kofi Annan is one to talk about anything being "Illegal". COUGH::OIL FOR FOOD::COUGH
We should tell the UN to do it our way, or shove off. It's about time a president has some spine against them, after all, if it weren't for us, they would'nt exist.
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Link, the Hero of Time
Vice Admiral
Joined: 15 Sep 2001
Posts: 5581
Location: Kokori Forest, Hyrule
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| Thu Sep 16, 2004 10:10 am |
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True, but lets not go back to the "League of Nations" yet. The UN works when people work together. Unfortunetly, some see it as a way to screw others.
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Superman
Fleet Admiral
Joined: 06 Dec 2003
Posts: 10220
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| Thu Sep 16, 2004 2:34 pm |
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| LightningBoy wrote: | | after all, if it weren't for us, they would'nt exist. |
Unfortunately, that statement is true. Would the UN exist, financially, without the U.S.?
It's hard to know what to think about this thing. Saddam Hussein was an evil man and I am glad that he is no longer leader of Iraq. But are things better? It depends on how you define "better". Where is it all going to end?
I'm no big fan of Bush and I'm no big fan of Blair but sometimes, just sometimes, we need leaders who do have spine. You've all heard that old saying that "all evil needs to succeed is for good men to do nothing". Something had to be done about Saddam. I just hope that coalition soldiers aren't bogged down in Iraq for years. For their sakes and the sakes of the Iraqi people.
As to the UN, it is pretty impotent and perhaps heading the way of the League of Nations. But, really, what would the alternative be? I just don't know.
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Republican_Man
STV's Premier Conservative
Joined: 26 Mar 2004
Posts: 14823
Location: Classified
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| Thu Sep 16, 2004 5:11 pm |
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| Quote: | | Well after 12 years of letting Saddam roam free and violate the orders that were imposed on him, I think it became pretty clear that the UN wasn't really concerned about it, and that they were not going to get concerned about it any time soon. |
Yeah, and OF COURSE he would say such a thing! Going into Iraq convinced him to have to dismantal his programs!!
| Dirt wrote: | | How did the UN let Saddam violate the sanctions that were imposed on Iraq if I may ask? Must have been that pile of WMDs huh? |
Look at the facts: THEY DID. MANY times. They didn't act on their threat to Saddam that if he didn't cooperate that they would declare war thanks to the WMDs--WHICH SEEMED LIKE AN IMMINENT THREAT!!! PLUS, they were part of the Oil for Food scandle!
| Quote: | | The UN is totally useless, they never do anything, and if they do then it is too late. |
Agreed.
| Quote: | YEAH... Kofi Annan is one to talk about anything being "Illegal". COUGH::OIL FOR FOOD::COUGH
We should tell the UN to do it our way, or shove off. It's about time a president has some spine against them, after all, if it weren't for us, they would'nt exist. |
He was in the Oil for Food scandle too? In bed with the UN and Saddam? I didn't know that.
But I agree.
| Quote: | | True, but lets not go back to the "League of Nations" yet. The UN works when people work together. Unfortunetly, some see it as a way to screw others. |
It's useless Link.
| Quote: | | Quote: | | after all, if it weren't for us, they would'nt exist. |
Unfortunately, that statement is true. Would the UN exist, financially, without the U.S.?
NOT just financially. It wouldn't work at all.
It's hard to know what to think about this thing. Saddam Hussein was an evil man and I am glad that he is no longer leader of Iraq. But are things better? It depends on how you define "better". Where is it all going to end?
They ARE BETTER. Just ask pretty much ANY Iraqi. They think that way--and I know that for a fact (I was told by an Iraqi Councilwoman from Baghdad who spoke to a Republican Breakfast, in her speech, that the Iraqis are OVERWHELMINGLY happy that we're there and that they are better off.) No more torture chambers, no more rape rooms, no more cutting off hands and heads and throwing people off buildings, no more silencing of women and giving them few rights at all....I could go ON AND ON--things are DEFINITELY better!
I'm no big fan of Bush and I'm no big fan of Blair but sometimes, just sometimes, we need leaders who do have spine. You've all heard that old saying that "all evil needs to succeed is for good men to do nothing". Something had to be done about Saddam. I just hope that coalition soldiers aren't bogged down in Iraq for years. For their sakes and the sakes of the Iraqi people.
I agree with basically of that, but we DO need to stay there as long as it takes, but I really agree with you otherwise.
As to the UN, it is pretty impotent and perhaps heading the way of the League of Nations. But, really, what would the alternative be? I just don't know. |
League of Nations? I don't think that any of this will work, as much as I want Star Trek to happen.
-------signature-------
"Rights are only as good as the willingness of some to exercise responsibility for those rights- Fmr. Colorado Senate Pres. John Andrews
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Hitchhiker
Rear Admiral
Joined: 11 Aug 2004
Posts: 3514
Location: Ontario, Canada
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| Thu Sep 16, 2004 5:49 pm |
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The League of Nations was founded at the Paris Peace Conference after WWI, it was the predecessor to the UN, which came along around 1945. It fostered a lot of the harmony the UN now tries to maintain, but like the UN was relatively unsuccessful at global nation-hugging.
(In other words, too many nations don't want to work together  )
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Republican_Man
STV's Premier Conservative
Joined: 26 Mar 2004
Posts: 14823
Location: Classified
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| Thu Sep 16, 2004 7:12 pm |
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| Hitchhiker wrote: | The League of Nations was founded at the Paris Peace Conference after WWI, it was the predecessor to the UN, which came along around 1945. It fostered a lot of the harmony the UN now tries to maintain, but like the UN was relatively unsuccessful at global nation-hugging.
(In other words, too many nations don't want to work together ) |
Oh that's right! I remember learning about that...
| Quote: | He was in the Oil for Food scandle too? In bed with the UN and Saddam? I didn't know that.
But I agree. |
Alright, I made an error there. I got confused between him and Libya's leader.
Still, that is BULL CRAP. Kofi ACKNOWLEDGED the threat, etc!
-------signature-------
"Rights are only as good as the willingness of some to exercise responsibility for those rights- Fmr. Colorado Senate Pres. John Andrews
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