Rule by or of law?
Vision
Published: 2024-07-24
At the beginning of Pascal Lottaz' interview with former Ambassador Chas Freeman, Freeman reads a presentation he made to a gathering of diplomats, many Chinese. As has been sadly noted in other articles and discussions, Freeman like other skilled, experienced and knowledgeable individuals from the "West" have been banned from their media and spaces of consultations. His wisdom is being excluded from consideration. Or, in modern phraseology, he has been canceled.
Following his assessment of the influence held in different nations and regions of the world Freeman provided a description of law, with reference to the European Enlightenment, which seems to also have been canceled.
Rule of law is an agreement between the citizenry and a government in which laws are made in public and all agree to comply with the public law, being equal before it. It has been clear during my lifetime that, minimally, in the West there are two tiers of enforcement. One is for the wealthy and powerful and the other for general citizens and enemies of the state. This, however, is not the comparison to which Freeman brings our attention.
Instead he describes rule by law as a system in which laws are created, not necessarily in public. These hidden laws or 'rules' can be changed, because they are not public. Thus, according to circumstance, a government can then use their re-interpretation to achieve whichever of their objectives a situation prompts.
It should be clear that rule of law is a mechanism to settle disputes non-violently using the processes of courts and basebased ond on evidence. Any other variant will lead to, or indeed facilitate, violent attempts to settle disputes, which also clearly, never settles them.
In "The World Court has cleared the fog hiding western support for Israel's crimes" Jonothan Cook considers a recent judgment by the UN's Court. The International Court of Justice was asked to provide the judgment by the UN's General Assembly on the topic of Palestine. Cook described the judgment as "earth-shattering". "Israel is a rogue state, according to the world’s highest court."
The political leader of the state of Israel, which the same court has ruled is plausibly committing genocide, is visiting the nation which has been the primary weapons supplier for the genocide Israel is committing in illegally occupied Palestine.
Caitlin Johnston commonly uses 'dystopia' to describe the world in which we live.
Watch the fawning reception which the Zionist leader of the genocide is about to receive while visiting its arms supplier, the US. Watch “Western” media not only convey and not condemn this most ghastly of occasions, but celebrate it. Watch the US Congressional representatives, the makers of law, welcome the leader commanding the most horrific of all crimes in contravention of more laws than imaginable.
Are we even ruled by rules?
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Sources
The World Court has cleared the fog hiding western support for Israel's crimes, Johnathan Cook, Jonathan Cook, 2024-07-23
Israel’s continued occupation of Palestinian territory ‘unlawful’: UN world court, UN News, 2024-07-19
LEGAL CONSEQUENCES ARISING FROM THE POLICIES AND PRACTICES OF ISRAEL IN THE OCCUPIED PALESTINIAN TERRITORY, INCLUDING EAST JERUSALEM, International Court of Justice, United Nations, 2024-07-19 [PDF]
Netanyahu To Meet Biden on Thursday, Trump on Friday, Dave DeCamp, Antiwar, 2024-07-23
The World Is DONE With The West. Here's What's Next ｜ Amb. Chas Freeman, Lottaz interviews Freeman, Neutrality Studies, 2024-07-20
Copyleft: CC0
Should be clear by now why the US kreps ignoring internationally recognised and agreed and documented laws and conventions…while bleating about some vague “rules based order” that no one knows the details, no one agreed to, and Isn’t written or ratified anywhere - not even in the US!
See Agamben’s theory of the “ State of Exception” - this steady shifting of goalposts is a clear indication of imperial loss of control, panic and a lack of any kind of intelligence nor integrity.
As for Freeman, he should just come out and say what he knows full well: the U.S. govt is now a thinly veiled military govt and State Dept is run by the crudest spooks. They ejected the actual diplomats and even the more enlightened spooks like Sachs are exiled from decision making , although he at his seniority level can’t be muzzled.