Preemptive Strikes and the Law

by Phillip Torsrud

What would we allow our government to do in the name of national security? Would we condone the raping of terrorists if the government claimed that it would deter others from becoming terrorists? Of course not; but are Americans willing to allow murder to go unpunished in the name of national security? War leads to deaths and it is sometimes necessary to kill people to defend our nation. However, when the nation’s security is not at stake and we still wage war, every resulting death that occurs is in fact the result of a criminal act of murder. There are no justifiable killings in an unjust war. This is why it is so important for the american people to know if the war in Iraq is indeed an unjust war?

We know for a fact that Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction. According to two non-profit journalism organizations, the Bush administration’s “935 false statements,” in the two years preceding yhe war in Iraq, “were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and. in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses.”

When someone in authority knowingly lies to the people to falsely justify a war, they have abused their authority, discredited their offices, and committed high treason. Who have they betrayed? We the people! Those who have voted, believing this process expresses both the credibility and accountability of our democracy. The soldiers, who loyally serve their Commander in Chief believing he will not casually waste the most precious resource our liberty is dependent on, their lives. Our forefathers, who made sacrifices to establish what we have today, only to have it thrown away like trash. Posterity, who must pay the costs of war with interest, restore credibility to our government and address all the problems we failed to resolve while investing so much in a lie.

Yet, during Senator John Mc Cains’s presidential campaign, he claimed he would let the troops return when the Generals said we’d won. that he wouldn’t be the one to withdraw the troops on a timetable and surrender, allowing Al Qaeda to claim victory over America. The problem is that without recognizing that the war was unjust, you won’t recognize that the war was lost the minute we found out there were no weapons of mass destruction and the invasion was predicated on a lie.

Does America lack a moral compass to distinguish right from wrong and determine if this is in fact an unjust war? Throughout America’s history, the people have taken great pride in living under a rule of law. That nobody, no matter how powerful, was above the law. What does America’s law say about preemptive Strike?

According to the State of Wisconsin, “The defense of self-defense does not encompass a preemptive Strike.” In other words, under all circumstances, a killing done in the course of a Preemptive Strike is first degree intentional homicide. This ruling was made against me prior to the invasion of Iraq. Yet, some of the judges or prosecutors so willing to condemn me were unwilling to publicly state this legal position against Bush.

I’ve posted my appeals transcripts at my website at www.crimeandculture.com and hope that at the very least it will inform people that if they follow the example of President George W. Bush, they will be subjected to a different law and have to do a life sentence. I’ve also written a book titled Preemptive Strike that explores the issues of self-defense and human trafficking. It is available at bn.com and Amazon.com. I also have blogs on Human Trafficking/Prostitution and Crime and Politics in America. Also I have published a blog titled Prison Policies and a work of nonfiction exploring America’s prison crisis, Essays of a Penitentiary Philosopher available at bn.com and Amazon.com.