George W Bush, President of the US between 2001 and 2009, had a veritable group of hawks around him. Dick Cheney served as his Vice President; Colin Powell, otherwise a reasonable man, had to go along with the group and provide Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, a public cover to attack Iraq for carrying weapons of mass destruction in his address to the UN Security Council, which ultimately turned out to be a lie. Though unrelated to the Iraq or Afghanistan adventures, the group was able to get a declaration, Responsibility to Protect — famously called R2P — from the UNSC in 2005, as a legal and moral cover for attacking a state from which the US felt threatened.

Although this had definite qualifying conditions to become applicable, those were broad enough to enable hubris. Since then, the world has literally trashed any pretension to a rule-based order, or international law, or notions of sovereignty. This set the stage for the age of impunity.

Terror and terror financing are the two other additions to the international obligations, which make it incumbent upon all member states to cooperate when someone indicted or convicted by the alleging state finds refuge or space in another state. It thus makes for a perfect alibi for a state to aggress against another when it suits its interests. Israel's war in Gaza and Lebanon, and against Iran, makes a perfect example; as does India's brazen offensive using its military might against Pakistan in May 2025.

The recent US foray into Venezuela is the most recent example. It may serve America's genuine concerns or interests, but what it also does is to stamp global acceptability for such aggression if one has the means to undertake the adventure........

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