The End of International Law?Robert Dreyfuss: A parallel new Bush doctrine is emerging, in the last days of the soon-to-be ancien regime, and it needs to be strangled in its crib. Like the original Bush doctrine -- which called for preventive military action against emerging threats -- this one also casts international law aside by insisting that the United States has an inherent right to cross international borders in "hot pursuit" of anyone it doesn't like.
Matt Reiner/Maya Schenwar: Regardless of the intent of the raid, Falk called the US action "a serious violation of international law," which allows for the use of violence only in self-defense. Yet [he] does not predict that any enforcement action will be taken, because international laws regulating the use of military force have been so undermined by the US and other nations in recent years. Falk called the raid "the latest display of Washington's disregard for the restraints of international law on the use of force."
Thom Shanker: On Monday, senior officials justified a weekend attack against a suspected Iraqi insurgent leader in Syria by saying the administration was operating under an expansive new definition of self-defense. The policy provided a rationale for conventional strikes on militant targets in a sovereign nation without its consent -- if that nation were unable or unwilling to halt the threat on its own.
