November 18, 2004 "ICH" -- Since the Bush Administration took power in 2001, the world have witnessed a cabal of extremists and fanatics wreaking havoc on defenseless nations such as Iraq, Palestine and Afghanistan in complete violations of international law, international organizations, and justice. They are destroying not only the international system for peace and justice, but progressive legislations in the United States.

The destruction of Iraq continues with total disregard for international law. "The crime hereinafter set out are punishable as crimes under international law: wanton destruction of cities, towns, or villages, or destruction not justified by military necessity" (Nuremberg convention Principle VI, 1945). According to this definition, the Bush Administration’s destruction of Fallujah, Ramadi, Tall Afar, Najef and Samarra constitutes war crimes for which the Nazis were tried and executed. To initiate a war of aggression is, very simply, the "supreme international crime" condemned at Nuremberg.

According to Francis Boyle, Professor of Law at University of Illinois, "In international legal terms, the Bush Administration itself should now be viewed as constituting an ongoing criminal conspiracy under international criminal law in violation of the Nuremberg Charter, the Nuremberg Judgment, and the Nuremberg Principles, due to its formulation and undertaking of aggressive war policies that are legally akin to those perpetrated by the Nazi regime".

In addition to this wanton destruction of Iraqi cities and towns, the US have cut off water supplies to Fallujah, Tall Afar, and Samarra for the past two months, affecting up to 750,000 civilians, reports the British humanitarian organisation, Cambridge Solidarity with Iraq (CASI). Can you imagine living without water for a day?

International law specifically forbids the denial of water to civilians during conflict. Under Article 14 of the second protocol of the Geneva Conventions, "Starvation of civilians as a method of combat is prohibited. It is therefore prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render useless for that purpose, objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population such as food-stuffs, agricultural areas for the production of food-stuffs, crops, livestock, drinking water installations and supplies and irrigation works".

The exact number of civilians killed by the US assault on Fallujah is not known. Red Cross official estimates that at least 800 civilians have been killed during the US military siege of the city. According to Red Cross, the information based on reports from Red Crescent aid workers stationed around the embattled city, from residents within the city and from refugees who fled the city. Eyewitnesses say most of the victims are civilians, including, women, children, and unarmed men between the ages of 14-60 years old, who were prevented from leaving the city before the US onslaught. 'Our neighbour house was raided; they killed her and two other women, two men, and two children—eight people—in the name of Al-Zarqawi. One of the women was in her seventh month of pregnancy. Her fetus got out of her body and stayed alive for 6 hours then died, according to the neighbours and relatives who retrieved the bodies from under the rubble’, witnesses told IslamOnline.

Associated Press reported that, "The Americans are shooting anything that moves". "Our air superiority is incredible," a US marine sergeant told Associated Press. "All we can do now is clear through the city and look for survivors. Air power is our best friend" against defenceless population. The US military does not count the number of its crimes, and its servicemen are immune from prosecution. In a word, the US is behaving like a gangster, above the law.

US warplanes have bombed and destroyed hospitals and small clinics serving the city of 300,000 people. Amnesty International reported that, "20 Iraqi medical staff [doctors and nurses] and dozens of other civilians were killed when a missile hit a Fallujah clinic on 09 November 2004". American snipers killed more than 17 Iraqi doctors who had mobilized to answer an appeal from Fallujah's doctors broadcast on al-Jazeera, Asia Times reported on 18 November 2004. There are no medical facilities or medics left to treat the wounded civilians.

While Fallujah was enduring the US-fascist assault, the world watches as if the Iraqi people were not humans. Mainstream media sold an act of mass murder of Iraqi civilians as a necessary step to "build democracy". Not only the Arab stooges kept their heads buried in the sand, their pliant media follow their orders and succumb to US power. Recent poll in the Arab World revealed that 81% of Arabs thought that the Arab media is pro-US, and only 8% support the Iraqi Resistance.

Western TV programs broadcast footage on 11 November 2004 that shows a US marine murdering a wounded unarmed man in a close-range criminal execution. The footage was used around the world as propaganda to portray the US army as law-abiding army and to cover up a large atrocity. This outright murder of Iraqi civilians is deliberately broadcast in the mainstream media "to normalise [and sell] the unspeakable and unthinkable [atrocity] for the general public".

The pretext of bringing 'freedom’ and 'democracy’ to Iraq through destruction and mass murder of innocent civilians rings hollow among Iraqis. The two terms are so despised in Iraq that people use them to describe westerners derogatively. Both terms are kept alive by Western ruling elites to manipulate the masses and justify wars of aggression against defenceless people. "Words like 'freedom’ and 'democracy’ have become like old coin, worn so thin as to defy even the most conscientious effort to distinguish between the real and the counterfeit", wrote Andrew Bacevich of Boston University.

US disregard for international law and justice has much deeper roots than contempt for democracy. As in the Vietnam War, it was simply taken for granted by the media that international law was for others, not the US. Despite the large atrocity of the Vietnam War, the US was never punished for its war crimes, and allowed to walk free.

The US war in Iraq is a silent holocaust about which the civilised world does nothing. It must be resisted and exposed. People have the right to do so without fear. "Everyone around the world has both the right and the duty under international law to resist ongoing criminal activities perpetrated by the Bush Jr. administration and its nefarious foreign accomplices such as Blair, Berlusconi, Howard, Koizumi, Kwasniewski, etc. by all non-violent means possible", wrote Francis Boyle.

The war against Iraq is premeditated act of aggression. It is a war crime. "This crime is perpetrated under our eyes every day, making accomplices out of those who do not denounce it", wrote the French philosopher, Jean-Paul Sartre. A non-violent international movement for justice and freedom must challenge those responsible for the violence and crimes and bring them to justice.

International law and domestic law provide legality for the arrest of world criminals who committed crimes against the Iraqi people. There is overwhelming prima facia evidence to support war crimes committed by the Bush cabal and their allies.

Ghali Hassan lives in Perth Western Australia: He can be reached at e-mail:
@exchange.curtin.edu.au