DEMOS

The Nuremberg Trials, to which the US made a major contribution, established the legal precedent that launching an agressive war (i.e. not in self defence) is a crime.

The US government launched an agressive war against Iraq which has resulted in the deaths of more than 655,000 people, displacement of millions, and the destruction of their society. It is nothing other than a massive war crime.

The “war of choice” launched by the Bush administration is in no legal sense fundamentally different from the decisions and actions for which the Nazi leaders were tried and hanged in October 1946. The US government knows this very well, and that is why it refuses to accept the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court at The Hague.

The Nuremberg Trials also found that the atrocities of Nazi Germany flowed from the "aggressive war", and the Nazi leaders were responsible for them. Similarly, the atrocities of Iraq, including the current civil war, flow from the initial illegal invasion and occupation.

The US's government's doctrine of pre-emption means that it can attack any nation it "believes" to be a threat on the basis of what that nation MIGHT do in the future. The result is that it has justified the use of military force to pursue its aims. The current aims are control of the oil in the Middle East, which is needed to offset the decline of US capitalism. The actions of the US ruling elite have their own logic determined by the crisis of US capitalism. As Hitler didn't stop with Poland, the US can't stop with Iraq. Voting for the Democrats (who voted and continue to vote for the war) won't end the war.