Footnotes

1 Bracken, P. (7 September 2007) Financial Warfare. Foreign Policy Research Institute.

2 The Stuxnet computer worm, the assassinations of Iranian scientists, and the 2011 explosion at a missile factory probably were part of a covert effort with the same aim that also apparently failed in achieving the main goal.

3 The recent half-hearted sanctions against Iran’s nuclear program are typical. If sanctions had immediately included a complete severing of all Iranian banks from all international banking, a prohibition on all ships entering Iranian ports from US and EU ports, and a prohibition on insurance companies that do business with Iran from doing business in the US and EU, sanctions would have had a better, if not certain, chance of success.

4 This section is based on Boot (2013), Kilcullen (2009, 2010) Nagl (2005), Petraeus (2009), Trinquier (2006), and US Marine Corps (2009).

5 The International Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment prohibits “any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or ac-quiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.”

6 This is not to say that there were not prior acts of terrorism. There were, going back at least to the eighteenth century and probably earlier, and including Palestinian terrorism that dates at least to 1929 when the grand Mufti of Jerusalem ordered the murder of Jews in Hebron and other towns.

7 These are only the more notorious incidents in a much longer list.

8 e.g., Osama bin Laden and Khalid Sheik Muhammad were engineers, Muhammad Atta an architect, and al-Zawahiri a doctor.

9 See Chapter 13 for four meanings of jihad.

10 e.g., in 2011 in Norway by Andrew Breivik or 13 mass shootings in the US in 2012.

11 Not to be confused with the International Court of Justice [ICJ or World Court] established in 1945 as the primary judicial organ of the United Nations. The ICC was established in 2002 to prosecute individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and after 2017, aggression. Problems include what laws it bases decisions on, retroactive prosecution, claimed jurisdiction over non-signatory nations, and the ability of signatories to protect accused individuals or conduct whitewash trials.

12 The US Executive Order forbidding assassination of heads of state could be set aside or circumscribed by another Executive Order without legislative approval.

13 In 1296, Edward I captured the Stone of Scone, a symbol of Scottish independence associated with the coronation of their kings. The English finally returned it 700 years later. This may have inspired the anonymous author of this bizarre idea.

14 Security Council Resolution 1441 “deplored” Iraq’s failure to comply with its commitment to stop supporting terrorism, to end repression of its people, to provide access to humanitarian organizations, to return Kuwaiti property, and to account for prisoners. It affirmed that “Iraq has been and remains in material breach of its obligations” and that Resolution 1441 was “a final opportunity to comply.” The Security Council said it was determined to “secure full compliance” and referred to repeated warnings of serious consequences for continued violations. It recalled Resolution 675 authorizing member states to “use all necessary means to uphold and implement” Resolution 687 declaring that a cease-fire would be based on acceptance by Iraq of various obligations including disarmament (Sofaer, 31 January 2003 Wall Street Journal).

15 Freedom House publishes an annual assessment based on a clear methodology of what is meant by each of its four categories

16 The Congressional Resolution authorizing the 2003 attack that passed 297-133 in the House and 77-23 in the Senate cited 23 justifications. The development of WMDs suspected by British, French, Israeli, Russian and US intelligence was only one factor and far from the most important. Others were noncompliance with the 1991 ceasefire agreement, including failure to account for all POWs held and firing on coalition aircraft patrolling the no-fly zone in violation of the cease-fire. Iraq prevented UN weapons inspectors doing their job, also in violation of the ceasefire, until the US put 100,000 troops on its border with Saudi Arabia, not something possible to maintain for an extended period. Furthermore, Iraq was a continuing threat to international peace and the economically vital Persian Gulf, and guilty of long-standing, continuing brutal repression of its civilian population in violation of human rights and of the 1993 assassination attempt on former President George H. W. Bush. It continued to aid and harbor international terrorist organizations, paid bounties to families of suicide bombers and provided training facilities for terror organizations. The Congressional Resolution noted that Iraq had ignored UN Resolution 1441 that had passed unanimously as a final opportunity to comply, and referred to 17 previously ignored UN Resolutions. Continued delay was weakening the coalition and undermining both US and UN credibility, as well as extending the economic damage stemming from uncertainty over Gulf shipping. No critic of the war produced a viable alternative plan for solving these problems (see also note 14 and Chapter 13 note 3).

17 This section is based on Andress (2011), Brenner (2009), Clarke (2010), Ventre (2011), and Wikipedia.

18 This section is based on Blomley (2003), Dunnigan (2005), Husick (2010), Posner (22 Aug. 2006), Rabkin (2004), and Rivkin & Casey (2005, 2006, 2007).