THE EMPIRE’S FIASCO

Imperial US circles are compared with ancient Rome, with the phenomenon of “Caesar’s delusion”, self-authorization for great crimes out of megalomania

By Erhard Crome

[This article originally published in: Blattchen, May 10, 2004 is translated from the German on the World Wide Web,  http://www.linksnet.de/artikel.php?id=1204.]

In the chapter on Enemy Injuries, the 1907 Haag war statute declared that attacking or bombarding “undefended cities, villages, apartment buildings or structures is prohibited.” The occupation regime has to meet all the regulations on restoring and maintaining public order and public life. Restoration of public order opposes the occupying power’s shelling and bombarding civilian dwellings. The occupying forces of the US and their confederates in Iraq are doing this when they attack the Shiite city Nadschaf or the Sunnite Falludscha with bombs and don’t give a damn what happens with the civilian population.

The 1948 Geneva Convention “On Protecting Civilians in Wartime” declares that persons are protected by the convention “regardless whether they are in parties involved in the conflict or in an occupying power.” “No protected person may be punished on account of an act that he did not commit personally. Collective punishments and all measures for intimidation or terrorization are prohibited…Retribution measures are prohibited against protected persons and their property. The US is a treaty partner of both conventions. It doesn’t give a damn about the conventions in Iraq today.

The US was also one of the initiating powers of the London Four-Power Treaty “on the prosecution and punishment of the main war criminals of the European axis” from August 6, 1945. “Crimes against peace” are defined in the statute for the international military tribunal: “Planning, preparing, initiating or carrying out an offensive war or a war in violation of international treaties.” This tribunal is competent to judge these crimes. Bush, his vice-president Cheney, war secretary Rumsfeld and their advisors and generals are already guilty by planning and executing the war against Iraq in violation of international treaties. The second category of punishable crimes is “war crimes”, namely “violations of the laws or customs of war” which have now become everyday occurrences in Iraq.

This group of international persons could now be searched., apprehended and immediately brought as defendants in the Haag. Obviously no one is demanding this now. Even the European governments that emphasized their non-participation in the war against Iraq agree with the American architects on diplomatic reserve and are diligently silent about their perpetration of offenses as war criminals. The victims can be seen day after day in the media despite all censorship.

Now Bush and Cheney must testify to the US Congress on September 11. Their poll ratings in the country sink and reelection becomes doubtful. The loud-mouthed goals of the “imperial presidency” are already buried in the desert sand of Iraq. The world is more complicated and contradictory than these men (along with one woman) thought. The world cannot be controlled militarily. The military cannot be made the lasting foundation of politics. What about the other presidential candidate? We should not harbor any illusions”, Egon Bahr recently said at a meeting in the Willy-Brandt house. Two things will remain: “power and mission” – reliance on military power and the self-image of a special mission in the world. The question is only whether this will occur beyond international law or whether the superpower will feel bound to international law. A new presidency by the democrat (Kerry), here I agree with Bahr, would represent a change if it bids farewell to wars against international law and the instinct of the “imperial presidency”.

Perhaps George W. Bush may be something very different as an historical phenomenon. People like to compare this imperial circle with ancient Rome. The phenomenon of “Caesar delusion”, self-authorization to great crimes out of megalomania is known from ancient Rome.