Where We Discover Consequences

The kidnapping/arrest/detention of 15 British soldiers by Iran has been making some waves over the past few days. A lot of attention has been paid to whether the Brits were in Iraqi waters, Iranian waters, and who exactly is "right" about this situation. But let's step back for a moment and think about this.

Let's assume best case scenario: suppose the British soldiers were in fact in Iraqi waters when the Iranians just up and kidnapped them. Given the past few years, the Iranians have a valid argument to say, "So what? What gives you the right to not have your soldiers kidnapped, when you've been doing it to other people for years?"

After all, the British and American governments have engaged in "extraordinary renditions" of thousands of people across the globe, and given that those people haven't had any trials of any sort, it's difficult to understand the rationale for those kidnappings. And this is my point: this is what happens when you decide to break the rules.

A close friend of mine pointed this out right before the invasion of Iraq: if we invade Iraq without UN approval, how can we complain if North Korea does the same to South Korea? If China does the same to Taiwan? (side note: that was the fundamental reason why he opposed the Iraq War, and once again let me remind everyone of how wrong I was to initially support the Iraq invasion. I understood and agreed with his point, but at the time I felt finding WMDs would have been able to provide some sort of "justification" for what we did.)

The Americans and Brits have violated UN Charters and Geneva Conventions with these renditions and with the invasion of Iraq, thus setting a precedent for other countries to engage in the same type of lawless behavior. We cannot credibly claim that we're the only countries allowed to ignore international law, and thus our breaking of international law signals to other nation-states their own right to do the same thing.

This is just the beginning. There will be other instances of nation-states engaging in lawless behavior, and we will have a very difficult time restoring any sense of order to the global community, because of our own lawlessness. Our difficulties on this will continue for a long time past whenever the hell we get out of Iraq. Just add it to the list of long term consequences to President Bush's actions.