[JohnGalt]

Perle is no friend to the Bush Administration and with his now multiple financial scandals, should be fired ASAP.

"I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing."

"international law ... would have required us to leave Saddam Hussein alone",

[JohnGalt]

Can you believe this guy?

Look at those quotes given to a foreign audience; what the hell is he up to?

[sanchmo]

I have a different interpretation of this comment. I don't read "the war was illegal" - I read "the concept of international law is a useless, meaningless joke."

[MNnice]

To quote Ann Coulter, "Look, let's be honest, International law is whatever the United States and Britain says it is."

[OldFriend]

If you read Perle's statement you see that he is absolutely correct and the breathless headline is as usual biased in it's interpretation.

Either we respect our national security mandate or we bow to international law.....WHICH IS IT GOING TO BE!!!

[Queen of Excelsior]

This article is a pile of garbage and the quotes certainly don't justify the headline. Just another attempt at Bush bashing.

[Grut]

I will believe 'international law' exists when I can dial I-911 and get the international police. But even then, I wouldn't necessarily think it was a good thing.

[tallhappy]

What's funny is you try to present this as a serious article to slam the Bush administration and peddle your lefty screed, as if it were some concession that the war was "illegals" -- the leftist mantra.

But it is a criticism of so-called international law.

The first sentences and premise of the article that the war was illegal and he admitted it is lie and distorts what was said as well -- a tip off to the leftist agenda driven piece.

If you believe there is or should be some sort of global super entity with authority over the US you'd like this article.

[Sloth]

"They're just not interested in international law, are they?" said Linda Hugl

Nope. Glad you dimwits finally got that through your thick skulls.

[Publius6961]

It doesn't take much intellectual horsepower to go through the exercise: What is international law?
To whom does it apply?
Who enforces it?

I have a strong feeling that for any normal person, viewing "international law" against the backdrop of the real world, his head would explode.

There is something about official diplomacy that is not quite real.

[Cicero]

Well, by saying that international law doesn't matter if we need to defend ourselves, Perle is making a point.

But actually there are good grounds to say that we DID have international law on our side. We had the UN mandate to do whatever it took to make Saddam behave. France may have vetoed further action, but that was enough to work with--and far more than clinton had when he attacked Yugoslavia with NO UN mandate whatever.

Moreover if you take traditional definitions of International Law seriously, International Law corresponds with Natural Law, as argued by Hugo Grotius, who is still recognized as a major authority in this area. And Natural Law recognizes the Christian principle of Just War, when ordinary diplomatic means have been exhausted, as they certainly were.

So this was still a foolish thing for Perle to have said.

[1rudeboy]

Are you familiar with The Guardian?

[big bad easter bunny]

There is no controlling legal authority.

[justshutupandtakeit]

Legal War is sooo much nicer, gentler and kinder than illegal War now isn't it? LoL.

[familyofman]

Interesting, very interesting.
If the justification for attacking Iraq was based on violations of international law, and the attack was in violation of those self-same laws there seems to be little use for international law. Perhaps it should be stated that the only operative laws are those of the jungle (maybe Mao was right - choke - truth & power eminate from the barrel of a gun).

[Coop]

Perle is no friend to the Bush Administration and with his now multiple financial scandals, should be fired ASAP.

If President Bush feels the same way you do, I'm sure we'll all know it soon enough. I have a feeling he does not.

[lodwick]

If anyone here cares about the Constitution, ONLY Congress can declare war; which they failed to do.

Cheers, all.

[Conservomax]

This article came from the Guardian.

Given the quote and how it relates to the headline - I'm suprised that it didn't come from the Onion.

This guy is reaching.

[PLK]

War critics astonished as US hawk admits invasion was illegal

Illegal in terms of INTERNATIONAL LAW. Fortunately, the U.S. rightly ignores the leftists on the international court.

[philman_36]

Just exactly where are "international law" ratified and codified at? I'd really love to look into those "laws".
Where is the repository of these "laws" deemed to govern the whole world?

[bushfamfan]

How is it illegal when we had previous war with the regime of Iraq and they did not live up to the deal that ended that war? Perle has gone mad. For him to say something so stupid, it's inexcusable.