AS a lawyer, my two favourite law provisions in the world are contained in the Charter of the United Nations 1945 which authorises the use of international force only if mandated by the UN Security Council to maintain or restore international peace and security (Article 42), or by a State acting in self-defence or defence of another (Article 51).
As Dzulkifli Abdul Razak indicates in "Long road to global peace" (My View, March 30) sadly these rules are neither respected nor enforced often enough. In fact, two of the key advocates and proponents of the original charter, the United States and Russia, have been the most frequent breachers of its provisions.
Even more sadly, illegal invasions by Russia in Afghanistan (1980) and the United States in Iraq (2003) inspired or provoked the formation of three of the most dangerous organisations in the world today, the Taliban, Al Qaeda and IS.
Dzulkifli also shows us that war crimes are only seen as heinous when done by the other enemy, for example by Karadzic and Serbia, but not when done by a friendly nation, such as the US bombing Japan.
One of the major crimes alleged and prosecuted at the Nuremberg Trials at the end of World War II was the German planning, initiating and waging of wars of aggression. And yet these are the same types of crime committed with impunity by the Great Powers today.
When this skewed sense of morality is rectified, only then will global peace be within reach.
Simon Wood
Petaling Jaya
As Dzulkifli Abdul Razak indicates in "Long road to global peace" (My View, March 30) sadly these rules are neither respected nor enforced often enough. In fact, two of the key advocates and proponents of the original charter, the United States and Russia, have been the most frequent breachers of its provisions.
Even more sadly, illegal invasions by Russia in Afghanistan (1980) and the United States in Iraq (2003) inspired or provoked the formation of three of the most dangerous organisations in the world today, the Taliban, Al Qaeda and IS.
Dzulkifli also shows us that war crimes are only seen as heinous when done by the other enemy, for example by Karadzic and Serbia, but not when done by a friendly nation, such as the US bombing Japan.
One of the major crimes alleged and prosecuted at the Nuremberg Trials at the end of World War II was the German planning, initiating and waging of wars of aggression. And yet these are the same types of crime committed with impunity by the Great Powers today.
When this skewed sense of morality is rectified, only then will global peace be within reach.
Simon Wood
Petaling Jaya