A lawless world

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On the third anniversary of 9/11, a US fact-finding commission issued a report providing level-headed information on the circumstances surrounding that fatal day. The 9/11 Commission Report is, according to pollsters, the 2004 best seller. It provides a sober view of the attacks and their context. The report begins by reviewing US diplomacy, concluding that it has left too many problems festering around the world, a matter that created resentment and encouraged terror.

Three years have passed since 9/11. During that time, the world has become less observant of international law. Extra-legal killing has become a common occurrence. Iraq has been occupied. Its central power has been split among thousands of religious and non-religious groupings. The shrapnel of conflict is flying everywhere, from Iraq to Russia, from Palestine to Indonesia. And the US is responding by declaring maximum security alerts. No one knows where the next bombing will occur. The only thing we know is that it will happen and soon. So far, 15,000 civilians have died in Iraq's bombings alone.

In the absence of international consensus, the US is turning the world into a battlefield. This situation cannot go on forever. We need to restore the UN to its role as representative of international legitimacy and resolve. We need the assurance of the UN. We need the guarantees provided by the UN Charter. As things stand, the UN is incapable of speaking on behalf of the international community as a whole. It has been reduced into a rubber stamp for US policy decisions.

The Iraqi crisis is a case in point. The UN was marginalised at first, then the US went to war, then the Security Council issued Resolution 1538, which recognises the occupation as status quo. Ironically, the UN is getting on Lebanon's case because the latter has amended its constitution, a purely internal affair.

The UN, as international law expert George Abu Saab says, has turned from a guardian of international conduct into a janitor cleaning up the dirt the US is leaving everywhere.

This is not the type of world we want to live in. This is the type of world in which terror will strike again.