Humanitarian Wars? Lies and Brainwashing – Rony Brauman

Foreword (Régis Meyran)

1. What do we mean by “just wars”?

The criteria that have defined “just war” since Thomas Aquinas are intended to limit both the reasons for going to war and the methods employed. The UN recycled them in 2005 under the “Responsibility to Protect” doctrine.

2. Using “alternative facts” to justify war: the case of Libya

The propaganda leading up to the 2003 Iraq invasion, which centred on “weapons of mass destruction”, did not convince people outside the United States. In contrast, the equally false allegations against the Gaddafi regime had majority support in France, including among those who mocked America’s gullibility.

3. Somalia: the first humanitarian war

Somalia was the laboratory where the UN tested its first militarized rescue operation. A famine was wreaking havoc in the midst of civil war and drought, but armed force was not the only possible response.

4. Kosovo: a morally justified unjust war?

Europe had legitimate reasons for opposing a violent ethnic-based power on its soil, but the diplomatic conference convened for that purpose appears to have been just window dressing for the American push for war.

5. Afghanistan and Iraq: two wars “for civilization”

While an army is the right tool for fighting another army, it is not the appropriate way to start a democratization movement. Yet that is what we continue to expect, using women’s bodies as an indicator of progress.

6. International humanitarian law: legal pipe dream and the language of power

Since the late nineteenth century, pacifists have viewed humanitarian law as a means for making war acceptable, and thus more likely. The recent development of killer robots and other “smart weapons”, presented as “humanitarian progress”, demonstrates the prescience of their critique.

Notes