The legality of targeted killings.
Iran mourns the death of their own, an army General of Qud’s forces, Soleimani Qassem, killed alongside six others, in what is said to be an assassination by the ‘Master’ himself , USA, as Iran is still mourning the death of the General, tension has rocked the international community as different groups appear to be in division as to whether his death was justified or not, states and different groups have also come out strongly to oppose this act of atrocity terming it as an attempt to start another world war, Prime Minister of Israel Netanyahu Benjamin has backed US on this, claiming it was a swift and a necessary move, this is not new as an attempt to assassinate the general back then by Israeli government and Arab agencies was anticipated by Iran government before it was executed, countries such UK, Russia, Turkey, Iraq and Syria have strongly condemned this move, Syria has accused US of trying to fuel conflict in Middle East and has said US should keep respect sovereignty of individual states, Trump’s administration on the other hand has justified this move on the grounds that the general was a master terrorist who was not only a threat to Americans in Baghdad but a threat to the world as whole, Mike Pompeo secretary to the state said Trump’s order to execute the general were very much in order.
A number of issues have come up and have sparked an ongoing debate on the matter of extra judicial execution or targeted killings in terror terms, issues on legality and morality of killings, and what international law as to say, delving on this matter, I first begin by reminding us that life is sacred and no human being should think of executing life of another person on whichever grounds and principles of religion will concur on this, international law of Geneva convention on humanitarian law will supposedly argue the same, human right activist will also remind you of the very thing, but don’t forget that the same international law also understands the implications of having a threat within an international community and how to address the same.
What is the necessary step to take when lives of millions are at stake, lives are threatened by a single individual, what is the best way to deal with the threat? Execute or arrest, USA will go for the option of eliminating first and fast, but what moral audacity does USA have to do all these? anyone who doesn’t understand the workings of international system and politics will be bothered by the very questions.
This is not the first time US is executing individuals suspected to be a threat to international community they have done it before, they have done it now and will definitely do it in the future, Osma Bin Laden, Sadam Hussein, Yemen terrorists killed in 2012, and many others, it is in their(USA)) security interest to protect their citizens and the world as whole.
According to the international humanitarian law, the controversy and the conflict on morality and legality of this issue is quite evident it doesn’t come out explicitly whether such killings are allowed or not, whether killings are justified. International law argues that such killings can only be lawful if a suspected terrorist is plotting an imminent attack, was Soleimani a terrorist? Yes he was, not just a terrorist but a master terrorist, that’s according to Trump’s administration,and therefore his death is a sigh of relief to the international community. Some human right experts have conceded with this argument claiming that it is only in some few instances that targeted killings can treated on moral and legal grounds, to me this is circular reasoning since their argument doesn’t hold much water, they should actually point out when and why this should not be the case.
State on the other hand argue that such moves are justified in an effort to deal with the war on terror, and to US that was a necessary move, human activitist again opposes this view terming it as misplaced, to them the existing international norms are not adequate enough to deal with issue of terror, discussions on these weighty matters are still ongoing.
It should be remembered that a similar scenario once occurred when Bill Clinton did the same thing when he was about to be impeached, international commentators have termed Trump’s move as diversionary tactic to stop his impeachment bid amidst ongoing process to oust him by the senate, this follows few weeks after a successful impeachment by the congress, Nancy Pelosi speaker of the congress came out to strongly oppose the killing claiming Congress members were not consulted before moving ahead with assassination.
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