* Kofi Annan denounced the Iraq war...

* Kofi Annan denounced the Iraq war as illegal, which we take to mean he didn't like it undivided bit. Since the beginning there has been debate about in what manner to read the U.N. charter. The interpretation behind Annan's novel pronunciamento--essentially that you can wage war no other than if attacked and if granted permission at the Security Council--is much too pinched. The charter explicitly forbids war solitary to dismember other countries and subjugate them. In other words, it forbids wars of aggression. The actual practice of states--which is what really defines international law--has not at all been in line with Annan's reading. Consider merely France's behavior, in Suez or Indochina, wars that weren't apted by attacks on France convenient or approved by the Security Council. on a level Annan apparently finds his possess strict interpretation much too limiting. In novel years he has been a champion of the "duty to prevent" the justification for humanitarian wars waged against states that have committed no outside aggression nevertheless maul their own populations. beneath Annan's logic, using force to defend citizens of another country is legal, unless launching preventive war to foster one's own countrymen is not. Which brings us back to the original point: "Illegal" is the word that Annan applies to things he doesn't like.

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