The Strikes against Afghanistan and Sudan

Timing Concerns:

One of the targets was Afghanistan¹⁰ and the other Sudan¹¹. (The two previous links to each country provide a detailed description of the recent history of the two states and how they were influenced, affected and aided by Soviet and US regimes during the cold war.) Both were suspected of involvement in the bombings or future bombings against US interests. USA can perhaps claim the right to self-defense and justify these attacks, by quoting Article 51¹² of the UN Charter¹³. The question of the legalities were expectedly not the main focuses of the debate, but rather the timing¹⁴ -- due to the Monica Lewinsky¹⁵ controversy -- and the parallels to Wag the Dog (a story where a war is created to divert the pressure and attention on an American presidential scandal elsewhere).

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Small Question of Legality:

There are, however, questions and incidents in history which, as these links suggest, the legality¹⁶ of the attack and the use of Article 51 as a means for justification may just be an excuse¹⁷ and possibly an invalid one.

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Guilty 'til Proven Innocent:

The "overwhelming burden of proof" still hasn't been made available¹⁸ which is a concern especially since at the time many claimed that the factory couldn't possible make chemical weapons and only now the US have admitted that the bombing was a mistake.

The FBI have said that the collaborative efforts of Kenyan, Tanzanian and US authorities to search for evidence was not used¹⁹ to determine the necessity of the tit-for-tat strikes. It is also interesting to note, as this news article²⁰ from the BBC points out, that when Iraq's Saddam Hussein was the center of focus, USA was restrained by the United Nations. This time, a terrorist has been bombed unilaterally without the need for the United Nations. And as this article²¹ from the Guardian²² suggests, the tit for tat may not be the answer and also notes that if every nation reacted like this then we would be in a state of disorder.

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Effects of the quickly thought out decision to strike back:

Whatever, legal or not, it unfortunately lead to heightened security²³ around the world for US citizens and there were calls in the Islamic world threatening more attacks and voicing the outrage and hypocrisy²⁴ at this, as the USA had threatened more similar attacks²⁵. What is even more ironic is that the main person that was targeted by the USA, Osama bin Laden, was once supported²⁶ by the US, just like Saddam Hussein. The result of all this is that the strategic game of chess²⁷ in this area has been prolonged and in the meanwhile, the health crisis²⁸ in Sudan will deepen even more as the factory that was destroyed produced most of their medicine.

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Media Coverage Helps?

While there have been many protests²⁹ around the world, the majority in the opinion polls in USA seem to show that most Americans were in favor of the strikes³⁰ and that many European heads of state also supported them. However, is that surprising considering the lack of editorial diversity³¹ on this issue? There was no major media corporation looking into the issue of the legality of the attack, for example.

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