The law applies to all, or only to some?

One thought went through my mind Monday when I watched television reports on President George W. Bush's bizarre little foray into Iraq at the same time that British troops were leaving the city of Basra in the south. As both countries start making moves to eventually withdraw from Iraq, I and many others ask whether powerful countries like the United States and United Kingdom will ever be held accountable for their militarism around the world.

The US and UK are like runners in a relay race, handing off the imperial baton to each other in a violent rampage through history. Iraq is the most dramatic and destructive example of what happens when Western powers send their armies on missions around the world based purely on their own sense of empire or emotional needs. The British government is a complicit accomplice more than an equal partner in crime, because its main job has been to provide the illusion that a great international coalition of world powers is fighting selflessly for freedom and democracy in Iraq.

Yet the same question remains to be answered, when the world finds time for it: Should these governments be held accountable for the consequences of their behavior, just as they held Saddam Hussein and other bad guys accountable? Or do Western powers like the US and UK enjoy an impunity that allows them to sow death and destruction around the world? Are they effectively above the law for their deeds in Iraq, at a time when they say they wish to promote the rule of law in Iraq? Does the law apply to all, or only to the weak?