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posted Oct. 19, 2009
Marjorie Cohn: "...these service members who refuse to deploy to these illegal wars are acting lawfully.”
Lawyers: US Wars Violate Geneva Conventions
At conference in Seattle, Lawyers Guild leader pledges support for war resister held at Fort Lewis
by Mark Taylor-Canfield
The National Lawyers Guild held their annual national conference in Seattle from October 14th to October 18th. Among the major topics of discussion were legal responses to the two US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Marjorie Cohn, President of the National Lawyers Guild told her colleagues at the Seattle conference that the US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan are in direct violation of the United Nations Charter and the Geneva Conventions.
“The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are illegal. They’re not just ill-advised, they’re not just unwinnable. They’re not just mistakes – they’re illegal. Neither one of them was done in self-defense. Neither one was approved by the UN security council.”
Marjorie Cohn, President of the National Lawyers Guild told her colleagues at the Seattle conference that the US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan are in direct violation of the United Nations Charter and the Geneva Conventions.
“The war in Iraq was not a war of self-defense. Sadam Hussein had not attacked any country for twelve years. Likewise, Afghanistan never attacked the United States. The Taliban, the former government of Afghanistan never attacked the US. Suppopsedly nineteen men (fifteen of them from Saudi Arabia) were the culprits on September 11th, 2001, but we didn’t invade Saudi Arabia.”
In her book, “Rules of Disengagement”, Marjorie Cohn and her co-author Kathleen Gilberd document what they see as a growing resistance to both of the wars by members of the US military. Cohn explained the NLG’s legal position on US soldiers who refuse to serve in Iraq or Afghanistan.
“There is a duty to obey lawful orders. There’s also a duty to disobey unlawful orders. This comes from the Nuremburg trials and it’s in the Uniform Code of Military Justice. An order to deploy to an unlawful war is an unlawful order. And therefore, these service members who refuse to deploy to these illegal wars are acting lawfully.”
The National Lawyer’s Guild Military Law Task Force is helping to provide legal support to war resister Travis Bishop, currently being held near Seattle at Fort Lewis where he is awaiting his court marshal for refusing to deploy to Afghanistan.
During the NLG conference, demonstrations in support of Travis Bishop and the other soldiers at the military prison were held outside the gates of Fort Lewis. Travis Bishop has been designated as a “prisoner of conscience” by Amnesty International.•