Does military action lack UN sanction and will it be an act of war?
The resort to force not only lacks UN sanction, but is strongly opposed by the people of the region, and apparently by the Iraqi democratic opposition. The last comment I have to qualify. I know of their views only from the foreign press; as before, during, and after the Gulf War they remain virtually barred from US media, in keeping with Washington’s stand, announced again in mid-March 1991 when the State Department explained that “Political meetings with [Iraqi democrats] would not be appropriate for our policy at this time.” The time was 14 March 1991, as Saddam was decimating the opposition under the eyes of General Schwartzkopf and the US was even denying captured Iraqi arms to rebelling military officers. One might contrive a tortured legal argument holding that the use of force is justified by Iraqi failure to meet the cease-fire conditions, so that Resolution 678 (29 Nov. 1990) is “reinvoked.” Doubts about the matter could readily be resolved by a US/UK request for endorsement
