posted on Jun, 12 2007 @ 11:42 AM
The term relates to international law.
A legal war is one that is mandated by the UN security council, following a passed resolution that authorises the use of force against a nation.
An illegal war is one that is not mandated by the UN.
There are exceptions to this, where the UN recognises the right of a nation to defend itself from attack by a neighbour state or aggressor by the use
of force as appropriate.
When Iraq invaded Kuwait in '91, the UN security council passed a resolution to allow the use of force to repel the invaders from the country.
When the US invaded Afghanistan, there was no UN mandate. When the US invaded Iraq, there was no UN mandate. The Afghanistan invasion was tolerated in
general by the UN community on the back of the 9/11 attacks and the indisputable links between the Taleban and Al-Quaeda. The UN has since mandated
the use of force in the country as a part of the peacekeeping efforts.
The Iraq invasion was carried out under a false-flag, namely that the US argued UN resolution 1441 authorised the use of force, where other nations
said that 1441 was a precursor to a resolution that authorised the use of force. There has never been a UN mandate specifically sanctioning the
invasion of Iraq since 1991.
Following an official declaration of War, the geneva convention applies to all parties on the battlefield.
The "War on terror" is not a war on a nation state, and there has been no formal declaration of war (you can't declare war on an adjective!), this
then is where the US - almost exclusively - has exploited international law by coming up with the definition "enemy combatant".
Enemy Combatant is a murky grey definition as by rights terrorism is a criminal offence dealt with by law enforcement agencies, making people captured
in the undertakings of anti-terror operations prisoners bound by the legal system of the country they are captured in pending extradition to the
nation that seeks to try them.
"Enemy combatants", according to the US, can be detained by US forces, rendered, moved to US held territories without trial and tried by US military
tribunals, without extradition proceedings or recognition of established legal systems, which is why the rest of the world has problems with the
process, and GITMO as a whole.
[edit on 12/0607/07 by neformore]