Supporters of international law have expressed consternation that the leading candidate for the Democratic nomination for president — like most of her potential Republican rivals — strongly supported the illegal U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. Hillary Clinton’s support for the Bush administration’s request for war authorization effectively placed her in opposition to the United Nations Charter and the Nuremberg Principles forbidding such wars of aggression. Ironically, these important international legal standards were in large part designed by officials from administrations of the very political party she hopes to represent in the contest for the White House.
Clinton’s defenders insist that her vote in support of the invasion was simply a “mistake,” as if this graduate of Yale Law School had somehow forgotten such basic principles of international law or the obligation of the United States, under Article VI of the Constitution, to uphold such binding international treaties.