America's 'Military Lawyers' Can Be As Deadly As It's Drones (Commentary)

America's 'Army Of Lawyers' Is Almost As Deadly As Its Drones -- Dawood Ahmed, The Guardian

The US has relentlessly argued that targeted killings are legal under international law. The third world has to push back

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it." Some ascribe this quote to Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels; others say Hitler authored the idea. In Mein Kampf he did speak of the invention of a lie so "colossal" that few would believe that someone "could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously".

Whoever coined the idea, the point is this: controlling the narrative matters immensely.

Military prowess is not enough in this age. And the United States knows it. America's "other army" – its less visible but equally potent cadre of skillful lawyers (in government and even in private institutions) – dutifully got busy crafting appropriate international law narratives for the War on Terror. They realized that winning the battle for defining "legality" on the world stage was critical.

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My Comment: Some would say that rules of engagement are structured along legal rules and regulations that limit and/or hinder U.S. military operations. But in the 21rst century .... especially as the world becomes intertwined on the economic/social level .... these legal rules and regulations do have an impact .... especially in providing the moral basis when intervening on a military level and using weapons of war such as drones.