(This article was written and published in March 2003, right at the beginning of the Iraq war. While the tone is desperate, there is always, (well, mostly) some reason for hope.)
Rule of Law, supreme at all times, is the basis of the Social Contract; the glue that holds all communities together. The “social contract” as envisioned by Hobbes and Locke, allowed individuals and families to organize themselves into communities and nations; assigning protective and custodian responsibilities to the state leaving the individual to pursue productive endeavors.
This concept is held together by the binding and irreversible principle that the Rule of Law is absolute. Not just when it is convenient and easy, but at all times and in all contexts.
This is the guiding principle which characterizes all communities, states and governments. If an individual is found to be in breach of law, it is the state that takes actions and prosecutes the offender, not the victim. Individuals should not and shall not take personal vengeance and retribution against the offender. If this concept breaks down the social contract is dissolved and we go back to a world of anarchy and lawlessness.
The opposite of this is vigilantism; a concept in direct contradiction with the very principles that hold a nation together. When the “social contract” is mislaid the society moves steadily and irrevocably into anarchy. While vigilantism has been made trendy in popular fiction and Rambo like movies, no nation can condone or allow vigilantism to be the “order” of the day.
As communities developed into nation states and nation states developed into international communities, this fundamental concept has developed along with it. While the lexicon has changed, the principles are the same. I speak of the principles of “territorial integrity” and “sovereign right”.
What this means of course is that no nation has the right to encroach upon and brutalize the citizens of another. Such action, when deemed necessary, and the history of the world shows that it can be necessary at times, shall be undertaken on the basis of understanding and agreement in the International Community. The United Nations, serve this function in modern day world and we are all members of this forum. We have to abide by this principle always, and at all times. For otherwise the result would be anarchy. This time not only on a national level, but at the global level.
For generations America portrayed itself as the bastion of the Rule of Law, the citadel of democratic ideals, and stout defender of Sovereign Integrity. We believed and idealized the staunchness of the American Way of Life where freedom and liberty in the pursuit of individual happiness reigned supreme. Frontier mentality and vigilantism, we believed were practices of the past.
How wrong we were. For it is midnight and the masks are off. The person behind the charade is visible. And we have to accept that all of us have been duped. The frontier mentality of the fabled Texan Gunmen together with arrogance, overarching pride and an excess of hubris is still the order of the day. The inalienable concept of Sovereign Integrity, and the weight of international public opinion has meant for naught. For when the attempts, the crude and farcical attempt to legitimize the war against Iraq failed, the descendants of the authors of the Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights has given up all semblances of following the Rule of Law.
But the problems and the issues that arise out of the slaughter of the Iraqi regime will not end here. Baghdad may just be opening act of US international vigilantism gone rampart and out of control. If Iraq today, who next?
Are we all, rich and poor, big and small, condemned to be under the hegemony of the US. Forever acquiescing and yielding such that we never get on the wrong-side of Bush. Doing everything not to be identified within an “axis of evil” list conjured by Rice. Controlled by the collective myopia of Rumsfeld et al.
While it is hard to see how the yoke and tyranny of the present American administration can be easily overcome, it is in the nature of this human spirit to be optimistic. History have proved that right would, in the end, triumph over evil. That the tyrants to today, shall, under the burden of excess hubris and arrogance, make way for the enlightened and the decent.
Martin Luther King Jr. said “Our Lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” What is at stake here is important matter for all and critical enough for one and all to speak out. To make our voices heard. For in the end, such acts would not be futile.
March 2003