There has been rationalization ad nauseum of late among right-wingers that the President's war on Iraq is a "defensive" action justified by International Law and Article 51 of the United Nations Charter. In an opinion piece for the National Review titled "Leviathan to the Rescue" (  http://www.nationalreview.com/14oct02/johnon101402.asp ) author Paul Johnson speciously argues that the US is "lawfully empowered to take action against Iraq by Article 51 of the UN Charter."

Mr. Johnson asserts in his article that:

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" ... Article 51 states plainly that nothing in the charter 'shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense . . . until the Security Council has taken [the] measures necessary to maintain international peace and security.' It is the last two words which are crucial. A year ago, the U.S. was subjected to an unprovoked attack of an unprecedented kind, which not only killed 3,000 people and destroyed much of the country's main financial district but was designed also to destroy America's legislative body and/or its executive, and its main defense headquarters. The scale of the attack, and the presumption that it would be followed by others, gave the U.S. the right, under Article 51, to punish the aggressors and to take all necessary steps to ensure its future security by destroying the source of their power, present and future."
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He goes on to argue:

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"the need to eliminate regimes which, in one way or another, make international terrorism on a large scale possible and threaten to produce mass-destructive terrorism. Such states include not only all 'the usual suspects' - Iran, Libya, Syria, Cuba, and North Korea (as well as Iraq) - but Saudi Arabia too, whose authoritarian monarchy pays protection money to terrorists and spreads the religious fundamentalism which lies at the root of the problem."
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Mr. Johnson is arguing that the US is justified in pursuing whatever action it wants - against whomever it wants - because the UN failed to prevent the September 11 attacks by "tak(ing) the measures necessary to maintain international peace and security." In short, Mr. Johnson is saying "Something bad happened to us and the United Nations failed to prevent it; we therefore declare the United Nations to be irrelevant, and intend to pursue a campaign of murder and conquest to avenge ourselves and insure our future security."

The hypocrisy and sheer criminal psychopathology of some of these self-proclaimed "patriots" and "law and order" types is breathtaking. If someone invades my home, common law recognizes my right to use reasonable force if necessary to protect myself or my family, but only if lives are threatened, and then only until there is no longer an immediate threat. This is true even in the unthinkable event that a member of my family has been murdered. If, in my anger or grief, I arm myself, travel to an area I believe is frequented by the intruder, and cold-bloodedly start shooting people **I think** may be the intruder's friends (or of a racial or socioeconomic profile **I believe** likely to commit home intrusions), I am guilty of multiple counts of first degree murder, and no question about it. No amount of rationalizing the ineffectiveness or irrelevance of the police department (no matter how true that might be) will change that fact or mitigate the jury's finding.

In promoting this brand of poison, the Bush administration and people like Mr. Johnson represent the greatest threat not only to world peace but ultimately to our own security. Even if one accepts the transparent lie that the United States is motivated only by security concerns - and not by oil, empire and world supremacy - the doctrine espoused by these reactionaries violates all the principles of the Nuremburg Tribunals and stands on its head the body of laws and ideals the US claims to hold so dear.

On a secondary (but no less-important) level, the actions rationalized by the US as "justified" teach indelible lessons that promote a lawless society, a retro-vigilante culture where lynch mob justice and gangster mentality are seen as virtues.

There were good reasons for exiling Napolean, executing the Nazi war criminals, and imprisoning Al Capone. They were all of a kind with those who now threaten world peace by ignoring the rule of law and pursuing a policy that promises to set back civilization to the time of the vandals and visigoths.