DEFENCE SECRETARY Reid’s recent speech to the Royal United Service Institute entitled ‘20th-Century Rules, 21st-Century Conflict’ is a reflection of just how desperate the crisis of the imperialist system is, and how its rulers feel the need to be able to lash out at the peoples of the world without any limit or restraint.
In his speech Reid demands that international law – the Geneva Conventions (which he wrongly states were written ‘almost 50 years ago’, at a time which would be ‘unrecognisable’ to us now, when in fact they date back to 1864, with subsequent additions) be rewritten.
He demands that they should be rewritten to suit the Anglo-American imperialist axis, so that it will have the right to launch pre-emptive strikes against other nations, and groups within other nations on the basis that it feels threatened. He is essentially demanding the right to go to war with countries like Iran in the period ahead.
Reid doesn’t want a problem where the general staff refuses to attack another state because they fear that they could end up in the dock at a war crimes tribunal, as they did for a time over Iraq.
He describes the imperialist crisis in this way: ‘First, that the strategic landscape we see before us now, and the threats we face, are different – and, as I have indicated today, significantly more complex – to anything we have faced before; and, second, that these are exacerbated by greater uncertainties ahead, be they ecological, economic, political or social’. The imperialist crisis is great, the crisis of capitalism is deepening, and the ruling classes are faced by revolution from every side.
This ‘new’ reality means that the established norms have to be ripped up. ‘The balance between considerations like obligation and entitlement and freedom and security needs to be continually re-struck. If we act differently today from yesterday it is not necessarily wrong – indeed it may be wrong not to.’ . . .
Again: ‘That is why I pose three questions about the international legal framework. Put simply, in today’s changed circumstances are we convinced that it adequately covers:
* the contemporary threat from international terrorists?
* The circumstances in which states may need to take action in order to avert imminent attack?
* Those situations where the international community needs to intervene on grounds of overwhelming humanitarian necessity in order to stop internal suppression – mass murder and genocide – as opposed to external aggression?’
He adds that international law should mirror the changes that have been made to British law, where summary justice, guilty until you can prove yourself innocent, non jury trials, and shooting to kill suspects are now the norm. In his brave new world the US and UK imperialists would be judge, jury and executioner.
‘However international legislation has not seen the same degree of change. . . So, I’m not sure we have yet given the same attention to the international framework in which we operate. The Geneva Conventions were created more than half a century ago, when the world was almost unrecognisable to today’s citizens. Those conventions dealt with important aspects of the conduct of war – how the sick and injured, and prisoners of war are treated; and the obligations on states during their military occupation of another state.’
Reid wants to pretend that the Geneva Conventions were not in operation during the second world war when the Nazis stormed all over Europe and North Africa, attacking Czechoslovakia, Poland, France and slaughtering millions in Russia and Yugoslavia.
This period is embarrassing, because he wants the nations of the world to give the US and the UK the legal rights to do the same.
Workers in Britain and internationally must put an end to Reid’s attempt to legalise imperialist massacre by organising to carry through the world socialist revolution to smash capitalism and imperialism, and replace them with world socialism