 
                        20030327.01

               The first letter about the War

     At supper tonight, I asked Rebekah and Nathaniel for
help with a problem that has me pre-occupied.  The problem
is search on an answer to a question, and the question is:
What must I do with respect to the War.  It is, I think, a
very important question.

     My first point is, that I may not ask the question if I
have already know the answer.  My first point is, that I do
no know the answer.  If I ask a question to which I have the
answer, then the question itself become a lie, because I
pretend that I am searching for something which, in secret,
I have already found.

     I mentioned to you that the Secretary-General of the
United Nations Mr Kofi Annan, has stated his opinion that
the war is not authorized by the UN and is therefore in
violation of the UN charter. The conventional interpretation
is that wars which are not sanctioned by the UN are illegal
and that therefore individuals conducting such wars are war
criminals.

     The German newspapers report that a complaint has been
lodged in Germany against the German head of state,
Chancellor Schroeder, to the effect that Germany's supplying
air surveillance to Turkey is a war crime, in as much as the
war is unauthorized and surveillance date will be used in
prosecution of an unauthorized war.

     It is established in international law that not only
the head of state who prosecutes an illegal war is guilty of
a war crimes, but his subordinates who assist (aid and abet
is the legal term) him in this eandeavor are likewise a war
criminals.

     My question to Nathaniel and Rebekah was, assuming that
there is such a thing as war crimes, how far does the
criminality of conducting an illegal war filter down to the
military and civililan bureaucracy that supports such a war,
to the generals and colonels majors and lieutenants, to the
sergeants and corporals and privates who fight it.  And
finally to what extent do citizens like ourselves, who
support an arguably unjust war by cheering on our troops,
waving flags, paying taxes and obeying all the other laws
that the government imposes in support of the war, become
complicit in war crimes.

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Copyright 2005, Ernst Jochen Meyer
