Necessity and Proportionality

• Author: Craig Forcese
• Pages: 233-236

233

Chapter 29

Necessity and

Proportionality

Since 11 September, my Government has obtained clear and compelling

information that the Al-Qaeda organization, which is supported by the

Taliban regime in Afghanian, had a central role in the attacks. There is ill

much we do not know. Our iniry is in its early ages. We may f‌ind that

our self-defense reires further aions with respe to other organizations

and other States.

— john d neGroPonte, us aMBassador to the united nations (7 oCtoBer 2001)1

I 1986,  American soldiers and a Turkish woman were killed

by a bomb detonated in a Berlin discotheque, and more than

200 people were injured. That bombing was greeted enthusi-

astically by Libya’s leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddaf‌i. The United

States claimed, in addition, conclusive evidence of direct Libyan

involvement in the bombing. Ten days after the terrorist killing, US

warplanes bombed Libya, dropping sixty tons of munitions on mainly

military targets, but also hitting some residential locations and kill-

ing an estimated thirty civilians — among them (allegedly) Hana Gad-

daf‌i, the Libyan leader’s daughter.2 In justifying its conduct, the US

ambassador to the United Nations argued that the United States acted

in self-defence against Libya’s “continued policy of terrorist threats

and the use of force, in violation of . . . Article 2(4) of the Charter.”3 The

United States stated that it had exhausted all peaceful means of try-

ing to change Libya’s behaviour. It confronted, however, an “ongoing

pattern of attacks” by Libya against US citizens and installations,

and claimed it had evidence of future planned terrorist actions. Its