By Con
George-Kotzabasis July
28, 2016
The following was my short
contribution to a Seminar held in the Law School of Melbourne University, on
July 28, 2016, with the theme “The Jihadist Challenge to International Law…,”
whose main speakers were two professors of International law of Harvard and
Yale Universities respectively.
The Jihadist
challenge to the ‘mountain’ of International Law must not give birth to a
‘mouse’ that will be at the mercy of the cat’s paw, of humanitarian lawyers. It
must be taken off their gentle hands and must be handled by judicious and
realist legislators, who are fully aware that this is no mere challenge to
International Law but an existential threat to Western civilization. Lawgivers
therefore must enact the harsh laws that will protect this civilization.
If the Jihadists are
prepared to fight with the laws of the jungle, then they must also be prepared
to suffer the whole hog of these laws. They must not expect that they will be
protected by the humane laws of the West.
Finally, it is a
great fallacy to believe that non-intervention or non-resistance by the West
will touch the souls of these fanatics. On the contrary, it will strengthen
their belief that the West is weak and they will attack it more ferociously and
murderously. And indeed, in their wild chase of the chimerical seventy-two
virgins they will not hesitate to use weapons of mass destruction against the
West.
