Ukraine crisis: US and Russia set for Paris talks :Lavrov Sets out Ukraine as a neautral State as a

reply to post by Xcathdra

Xcathdra
If I may - why not?

It is a German (probably very black and white) POV, but you asked for it...
Our defensive alliance had a profound strategic reorientation that changed it's original purpose fundamentally, at least since 1999.
So called "out of area / out of defence"-operations (in order to prosecute crimes against humanity and violations of international law) waged without UN-mandate, are per definition and name against the original purpose, and ironically, also against international law itself... apart from the fact that they also violate German law, which means that our armed forces are legally not even allowed to be anywhere near such missions. Personally, I hate that we put our soldiers in that position.
Also: in the negotiations leading to German unification our former FM Genscher promised Gorbatschow and the Russians that we would never support eastward enlargement of NATO towards Russia's borders. Needles to say - we did it anyways.


Regarding international law and your Doctor example -

You already made a reference to it: there are major problems with international law, mainly that we have no ultimate legislative body. This opens a whole new topic to argue about of course: a friend of mine even opposes any law superior to our own, and I often find I have to agree to a certain point.
But if we do need some kind of international rules (I believe we do), we have to have a way to reach a verdict, else everyone can claim to be the doctor in your example, and we might aswell return to the right of the strong... I'm afraid that is the way the world is currently headed.

Xcathdra
It would be an interesting thread.. If you do it let me know, I would like to participate if that's ok.

I wish I had the time right now. I will let you know when I get to it.

Just one short example though:
I don't know how much this is reported in the US, but did you know that there is currently a french-led military intervention in the Central African Republic? The intentions are pretty clear... this is a prime example of a resource war over the control of resource-rich areas, under the guise of "humanitarian action" and "counter-terrorism".
When journalists from a German radio-station confronted the FAF brass about it, their blunt response was: So what? The Americans did it... it's legal now.

Think about that. It's legal now.