Hillary Clinton on International Law

[babylonsister]

Hillary Clinton on International Law

Stephen Zunes | December 11, 2007
Foreign Policy In Focus
www.fpif.org


Perhaps the most terrible legacy of the administration of President George W. Bush has been its utter disregard for such basic international legal norms as the ban against aggressive war, respect for the UN Charter, and acceptance of international judicial review. Furthermore, under Bush’s leadership, the United States has cultivated a disrespect for basic human rights, a disdain for reputable international human rights monitoring groups, and a lack of concern for international humanitarian law.

Ironically, the current front-runner for the Democratic nomination for president shares much of President Bush’s dangerous attitudes toward international law and human rights.

For example, Senator Hillary Clinton has opposed restrictions on U.S. arms transfers and police training to governments that engage in gross and systematic human rights abuses. Indeed, she has supported unconditional U.S. arms transfers and police training to such repressive and autocratic governments as Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Pakistan, Equatorial Guinea, Azerbaijan, Cameroon, Kazakhstan, and Chad, just to name a few. She has also refused to join many of her Democratic colleagues in signing a letter endorsing a treaty that would limit arms transfers to countries that engage in a consistent pattern of gross and systematic human rights violations.

Civilian Casualties

Not only is she willing to support military assistance to repressive regimes, she has little concern about controlling weapons that primarily target innocent civilians. Senator Clinton has refused to support the international treaty to ban land mines, which are responsible for killing and maiming thousands of civilians worldwide, a disproportionate percentage of whom have been children.

She was also among a minority of Democratic Senators to side with the Republican majority last year in voting down a Democratic-sponsored resolution restricting U.S. exports of cluster bombs to countries that use them against civilian-populated areas. Each of these cluster bomb contains hundreds of bomblets that are scattered over an area the size of up to four football fields and, with a failure rate of up to 30%, become de facto land mines. As many as 98% of the casualties caused by these weapons are civilians.

Senator Clinton also has a record of dismissing reports by human rights monitors that highlight large-scale attacks against civilians by allied governments. For example, in the face of widespread criticism by reputable human rights organizations over Israel’s systematic assaults against civilian targets in its April 2002 offensive in the West Bank, Senator Clinton co-sponsored a resolution defending the Israeli actions that claimed that they were “necessary steps to provide security to its people by dismantling the terrorist infrastructure in the Palestinian areas.” She opposed UN efforts to investigate alleged war crimes by Israeli occupation forces and criticized President Bush for calling on Israel to pull back from its violent re-conquest of Palestinian cities in violation of UN Security Council resolutions.

more...

http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/4803

[Fredda Weinberg]

1. Ya had more for a sec ... then I got to the

"systematic assault against civilian targets" ... now I know where they're coming from and it ain't fact land.

[Armstead]

4. Does bombing apartments qulify for investigation as civilian targets?

Recognizing that the whole Israel-Palestine battles that periodically flare up leads to excesses on both sides, is it still not legitimate to call for investigations into possible over-reactions by Israel?

[Fredda Weinberg]

9. I believe the accusation here is that HRC loves cluster bombs

Or at least I've seen that accusation in a casual search. Also that she's in bed with defense contractors, AIPAC ... the scorn is heaped.

But you don't find much from the campaign itself, which tells me this is a drummed up issue for political motives. That's cool ... like I said, I was fooled for a moment, then I noticed that my people were being described as monsters. I got it.

[cali]

6. So this doesn't bother you?

"She was also among a minority of Democratic Senators to side with the Republican majority last year in voting down a Democratic-sponsored resolution restricting U.S. exports of cluster bombs to countries that use them against civilian-populated areas..."

[Fredda Weinberg]

8. Here's the point: when you accuse my people of deliberately targeting

civilians, I bristle. The whole cluster bomb debate is couched in heated terms ... looking things up just now, I come across phrases like, "Jewish disgust with Israel". I went through that stage - till I got to meet some real life Sabras.

So HRC's vote makes sense in her unusually Jewish constituency.

As for Israel's use in Lebanon, the purpose was to create a DMZ from which future attacks, like the one that killed several IDF soliders on routine patrol. You may disagree, but I learned that growing up in that neighborhood affects perspective, so I do not judge and bear no associative guilt.

My responsibility is to do what I can to fix problems closer to home and volunteering for HRC when she made her first bid for public office her was my obligation.

[Armstead]

2. I realize he is not an unbiasd source

But that does raise troubling issues.

Especially when contrasted with the DLC/Clinton support for international bodies like the WTO that undermine political sovergnty to allow the "laws of global capital" to supercede domestic policies.

[Dhalgren]

3. These are a few of the reasons I have strong reservations regarding

Senator Clinton's election to the WH. She is liberal in some areas and on certain issues, but she is fundamentally a corporate imperialist - and I cannot support that...

[whosinpower]

5. agreed

[disndat]

7. More profits for HC

MIC supporters and a danger to the health, life, and limb or the innocent Israeli people, as well as the Palestinians. The bloody ME war for oil would continue. Wake up Clinton worshipers!