Ever since he started hanging around Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani has sounded and acted more unhinged by the day–enough to make us wonder if we’re seeing the real Rudy. Well, those doubts should have been erased on Sunday morning. He claimed that virtually anything and everything is perfectly legal in wartime–no matter how disreputable it may be.
On Sunday’s edition of ABC’s “This Week,” Giuliani and host George Stephanopoulos discussed Trump’s recent argument that ISIS would have never existed had we taken Iraq’s oil once we ousted Saddam Hussein. Watch here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oGHVlSnS-Y
Not surprisingly, Giuliani loudly supported the proposal Trump made at the Commander-in-Chief Forum–we should have left troops behind at the lush oil reserves in northern Iraq so we could tap into them “and make sure it’s distributed in a proper way.” Stephanopoulos asked the obvious question–“That’s not legal, is it?”
We all know the answer to that question is a resounding no. It may have been acceptable maybe around 400 years ago, but any army that does that now would commit a blatant violation of international law. That’s what makes Giuliani’s response was so breathtaking.
“Of course it’s legal! It’s a war. (laughs) Until the war is over, anything’s legal.”
Apparently Giuliani forgets that for the last decade and a half, we’ve been fighting terrorist thugs who actually believe that anything and everything is legal in a battle. Crashing planes into buildings, destroying World Heritage sites, keeping prisoners in appalling and inhumane conditions, trampling on women’s rights, using child soldiers, etc., etc., ad nauseum.
And apparently Giuliani forgets that we fought a world war to stop a man who not only thought everything and everything was legal in war, but engaged in despicable tactics when he knew damn well they were illegal. Including shooting defenseless prisoners, slave labor, torture–and looting.
I’d wondered how in the world the Bush administration thought it was even remotely acceptable to use “enhanced interrogation techniques” (read: torture) on terrorism suspects–tactics that Trump has loudly vowed to bring back if elected. Well, now we have our answer. Somewhere down the line, a lot of people got into their heads that if Islamist thugs engage in atrocities, it’s illegal. But if we do it, it’s legal. After all, we’re in a war. I’d like to know whether Giuliani picked up this outrageous idea. I hope it wasn’t at NYU Law School.
Stephanopoulos let Giuliani off far too lightly. Anyone who even suggests that anything is legal in war deserves to be eviscerated where he stands–or in this case, sits. To his credit, Stephanopoulos brought on retired Marine general John Allen, who rightly pointed out that Trump and Giuliani are calling for something that “we, as a community of civilized nations” outlawed a long time ago.
After listening to this screed from Giuliani, if there is any difference between Giuliani and Osama bin Laden and ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, I don’t see it. After all, if Giuliani had his way, this country will have sunk to the same level as al-Qaeda and ISIS. And if that were to happen, the terrorists will have won.
In a sane world, history’s image of Giuliani wouldn’t be what he did in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks. It would be his full-throated declaration that anything, no matter how inhumane, is acceptable on the battlefield.
(featured image courtesy BotMultichillT, part of public domain)
