Statement Might Is Right and Its Political Implications - Essay Example

President Obama, while asking Congress to vote on his decision to act on the use of chemical weapons by Assad in Syria, manifests the truth in the statement that might is right. President Obama seeks to act on the situation simply because it poses a threat to its national security and ‘friends’. This action will be in violation of international law that only allows the Security Council to sanction recourse to war. The President downplays the role of the UN in the matter and does not wait for its decision.

From this action, it can be inferred that mighty nations can do as they wish without feeling bound by international laws. Ironically, the president states in his speech that the right creates might while doing exactly the opposite. In a similar vein, former president Bush went on with the pre-emptive war in Iraq even though the issue was before the UN. The reason put forward was that Iraq posed a threat to the national security of the US. This opinion fuelled the policy of the US to attack their enemies before the enemies attacked the US.

Similarly, Bush unilaterally decided that Iran with Nuclear weapons would be a great threat to world security. This misplaced notion that the US has the responsibility to bring change or protect the world could only stem on the operationalization of might is right. To sum it up, Kimen Valaskaki states in his article that whatever interpretation is given to pre-emptive actions leans towards the wrong assertion of the might is the right concept at the expense of the weaker nations. It is indeed true that might is right is a reality in the present world.

Works Cited http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0917-05.htm http://www.sobran.com/columns/2002/020307.shtml ‘