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      "body": "Congratulations @trenchantobserv! You received a personal award!\n\n<table><tr><td>https://steemitimages.com/70x70/http://steemitboard.com/@trenchantobserv/birthday2.png</td><td>Happy Birthday! - You are on the Steem blockchain for 2 years!</td></tr></table>\n\n<sub>_You can view [your badges on your Steem Board](https://steemitboard.com/@trenchantobserv) and compare to others on the [Steem Ranking](https://steemitboard.com/ranking/index.php?name=trenchantobserv)_</sub>\n\n\n###### [Vote for @Steemitboard as a witness](https://v2.steemconnect.com/sign/account-witness-vote?witness=steemitboard&approve=1) to get one more award and increased upvotes!",
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      "body": "Congratulations @trenchantobserv! You have received a personal award!\n\n[![](https://steemitimages.com/70x70/http://steemitboard.com/@trenchantobserv/birthday1.png)](http://steemitboard.com/@trenchantobserv)  1 Year on Steemit\n<sub>_Click on the badge to view your Board of Honor._</sub>\n\n\n**Do not miss the [last post](https://steemit.com/steemitboard/@steemitboard/steemitboard-world-cup-contest-results-of-day-13) from @steemitboard!**\n\n---\n**Participate in the [SteemitBoard World Cup Contest](https://steemit.com/steemitboard/@steemitboard/steemitboard-world-cup-contest-collect-badges-and-win-free-sbd)!**\nCollect World Cup badges and win free SBD\nSupport the Gold Sponsors of the contest: [@good-karma](https://v2.steemconnect.com/sign/account-witness-vote?witness=good-karma&approve=1) and [@lukestokes](https://v2.steemconnect.com/sign/account-witness-vote?witness=lukestokes.mhth&approve=1)\n\n---\n\n> Do you like [SteemitBoard's project](https://steemit.com/@steemitboard)? Then **[Vote for its witness](https://v2.steemconnect.com/sign/account-witness-vote?witness=steemitboard&approve=1)** and **get one more award**!",
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      "body": "![image.jpeg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmez8tmTmnZWkby137wzvqH2Tj7QZaz4LzbS1kSPsPhdXp/image.jpeg)\n\n\nTrump and Putin at G-20\n\nWe can skip all of the posturing and spinning associated with the meeting of Trump and Putin at the G-20 summit today in Hamburg.\n\nTrump’s statement in the presence of Putin before going into their meeting says it all: “It is an honor to be with you.”\n\nFor Trump, it is an honor to meet the military aggressor who invaded and purported to annex the Crimea in February and March, 2014.\n\nFor Trump, it is an honor to meet the military aggressor who invaded the eastern Ukraine provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk during the summer of 2014 by irregular forces, and by regular Russian troops beginning in August, 2014. Russian troops remain, as Russia has failed to live up to the commitments in the Minsk II Protocol of February 12, 2015, after failing to honor its original commitments in the Minsk Protocol of September 5, 2014.\n\nOver 10,000 people have died as a result of the Russian invasion and occupation of the eastern Ukraine. Trump is “honored” to meet the man behind their deaths.\n\nFor Trump, it is an honor to meet with the leader of a country which committed barbarous war crimes in Syria, bombing hospitals and civilian infrastructure in Aleppo, for example, and being complicit in the commission of the atrocities of the Bashar al-Assad regime.\n\nFor Trump, it is an honor to meet with the man who conducted a massive intervention in the American elections in November, 2016, helping to throw the election to Trump himself.\n\nFor Trump, it is an honor to meet with Putin, the man who is the presumptive author of the assassination of Boris Nemtsov, the leader of the Russian opposition, on February 27, 2017.\n\nThe stark facts are that Trump has a very special place in his heart for Russia and Putin, and would move quickly to help improve relations between the U.S. and Russia by making unilateral concessions, were he not constrained by Republican Senators and political leaders, and his own National Security Council director H.R. McMaster and cabinet-level secretaries such as James Mattis at Defense and Rex Tillerson at State.\n\nTrump likes Russia. He has married two women from former communist countries in Eastern Europe. He has had extensive ties with Russian investors, according to reports. He has fired FBI Director James Comey in an effort to halt the investigation of Michael Flynn and of his own ties and those of his campaign with Russia.\n\nLet’s not waste too much energy getting excited about the body language of Trump and Putin at the G-20, or what their spinners said they talked about in their meeting.\n\nIn order to improve U.S.-Russian relations, it is important to understand why they are at a low point.\n\nRussia’s military invasion of the Crimea and the eastern Ukraine, in blatant violation of Article 2 paragraph 4 of the U.N. Charter which prohibits the use of force across international frontiers except in self-defense, is a big reason relations with the U.S. and Western Europe have deteriorated.\n\nThere is no statute of limitations for military aggression.\n\nThe U.S., and Europe for that matter, will not improve relations with Russia by trying to appease the aggressor, Vladimir Putin. There is no case to be made for the lifting of economic sanctions against Russsia adopted in response to those military invasions, until the Russian troops have been withdrawn and material support for the separatists has ceased.\n\nThere may not be much if anything to be gained by “cooperating” with Russia to resolve the Syrian conflict. Many lessons can be drawn from Barack Obama’s efforts to do just that. The U.S. came perilously close to compromising its intelligence capabilities with the Russians under Obama, and failed to do so only in part due to a bombing of Syrian soldiers by the U.S. coalition which left some 60 dead.\n\nThe real question is what is Putin prepared to do, aside from offering vague and illusory promises of cooperation in Syria and on terrorism, to improve relations with the United States. So far, the conversation has been about what the U.S. and Western Europe can do to eliminate the sanctions adopted in response to Russian aggression, not about reversing that aggression.\n\nThe Senate and the House should enact the Russian sanctions into law, and tie Trump’s hands in terms of his ability to relax the sanctions against Russia.\n\nCongress needs to act vigorously to defend the United States’  national interests which Russia has violated and continues to violate. The only real sanctions, small as they were, in response to the Russian intervention in the elections, was to seize two properties used by Russian spies to conduct the operations, and to expel some 35 Russian agents. Those properties should not be restored to Russia until the fact of the Russian intervention is explicitly acknowledged and verifiable guarantees are received that Russia will not engage in such activities in the U.S. in the future.\n\nRussia is not America’s friend, no matter what half-baked illusions Trump may entertain. He has been, and remains, the first pro-Russian president of the United States at least since 1917. Given this fact, American interests must be protected by Congress. It would be folly to trust in Trump to protect U.S. interests from Russia on his own.\n\nThe Trenchant Observer",
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      "body": "It was a curious time, when the world fell apart and no one noticed.\n\nIdeas and institutions that men had died to defend no longer seemed important.\n\nThe experience of two world wars in the 20th century had left their lessons burned indelibly into the hearts and minds of those who had fought and lived through them, but now they were forgotten.\n\nOr if not forgotten, they were at least drained of their urgent content, reduced to mere intellectual incantations, rote formulations which no longer engaged the heart or the will to take individual and collective action in their defense.\n\nThe growth in the 20th century of international law, whose most basic principles were enshrined in the United Nations Charter in 1945, had lost momentum in the world of actions. Left behind was a hollowed-out edifice of principles which all major nations had once subscribed to, and still accepted verbally perhaps, but no longer felt obliged to defend through actions and not just words.\n\n![United Nations Flags.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmPeHLUhvWsYYkTzHdifxD5KPAsMN3ZS6hBUgy9MffmkPA/United%20Nations%20Flags.jpg)\n\nThe cornerstone of the U.N. Charter, contained in Article 2 paragraph 4, was the prohibition of the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.\n\nThere were other principles of international law of fundamental importance. One was pacta sunt servanda (“treaties are to be observed”).\n\nAnother, even more fundamental principle in international law, without which international law could not operate in the real world, was the principle that states (countries) must acknowledge actions of which they are the author. This principle is in fact implicit in the existence and operation of any legal system, whether international or domestic.\n\nA further obligation under international law was that states must offer public legal justifications for their actions. In questions involving the use of force, such justifications were explicitly required by Article 51 of the U.N. Charter.\n\nOther international legal principles protecting human rights had been contained in multilateral treaties and customary international law, as well as the U.N. Charter.\n\nHowever, as the whole system of international law governing fundamental aspects of relations among states had weakened, so too had the legal bulwarks supporting international human rights obligations.\n\nThis had led to a world in which leaders seemed unaware of, or oblivious to, any need to uphold fundamental norms of international law and the U.N. Charter.\n\nAt the United Nations General Assembly annual meeting in New York in September, 2015, the world’s attention was drawn not to a General Assembly resolution condemning Russian military conquest and “annexation” of the Crimea in 2014, or the ongoing Russian invasion of the eastern region of the Ukraine, but on what Vladimir Putin, the invading conqueror, might say in his address to the General Assembly.\n\nNor was the world’s attention drawn to the massive war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against the Syrian people by Bashar al-Assad, with the legal and moral complicity of Russia and Iran which backed him to the hilt with money, weapons, advisers and even combat personnel, or to Putin’s current military intervention in Syria enabling al-Assad to continue the commission of these crimes.\n\nRather, world attention focused on the meeting between Barack Obama and Putin and speculation on the kind of “deal” the West might strike with Putin to cover over the fiasco of their defeat in Syria and Iraq.\n\nThe Nuremberg Principles seemed to have been forgotten.\n\nInternational law itself seemed to have given way to a new system of “might makes right”, the kind of system that had led to two world wars in the 20th century.\n\nEverywhere international law, particularly the international law governing the use of force and that guaranteeing fundamental human rights, had been forgotten.\n\nWhile President Obama in his General Assembly speech on September 28 did use the words “international law”–a rare occasion during his presidency, he did so with an awkwardness and also other words that revealed his discomfort with the term.\n\nMoreover, harking back to his Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech in 2009, he also declared,\n\nI lead the strongest military that the world has ever known, and I will never hesitate to protect my country or our allies, unilaterally and by force where necessary.\n\n–Office of the Press Secretary, The White House, “Remarks by President Obama to the United Nations,” September 28, 2015.\n\nIndeed, the Trenchant Observer, an international lawyer who had followed these events and knew about 20th century European history, often felt alone.\n\nWhile he knew there were others who shared his views, their voices were no longer heard outside specialists’ circles. They were no longer heard in the public arena where amid the tumult and shouting public opinion is formed.\n\nNor did they seem to be heard in the councils of government when decisions to take actions were being made.\n\nEven the current American president rarely mentioned international law and, judging by his actions and not merely his words, held international law–particularly its binding nature which could constrain his freedom of action–in low regard.\n\nObama’s muddled references to international law in his U.N. Address were a welcome improvement but in the end were only words in a speech, when it is actions that count.\n\nThe action heard much more clearly than the words in his speech was that he met with Vladimir Putin, the presumptive war criminal who had invaded the Crimea and the eastern Ukraine, and who was now taking vigorous military action that would enable Bashar al-Assad to continue the commission of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Syria.\n\nThe Observer couldn’t avoid the feeling at times that he was alone in his belief in the critical importance of international law and how ignoring it had much to do with all of the chaos he saw unfolding in the world.\n\nHe had become “the last international lawyer”, or so it seemed.\n\nThe Trenchant Observer",
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      "body": "Saudi Arabia and a group of Arab states have initiated a land blockade of Qatar, an air blockade of Qatar aircraft entering their airspace, and the expulsion of Qatari diplomatic staff and citizens from their countries with very short time frames.\n\nPresident Trump has apparently led or encouraged the actions.\n\nThese actions appear to be in open violation of the basic principle of non-intervention in international law. The governments responsible for the blockade (land entry) or boycott appear to base their legal case on the claim that the actions were in effect “retorsions” under international law, that is, lawful actions that they were authorized to freely take. Much of their justification seems to rest, however, on an argument that they were lawful countermeasures (non-forcible reprisals) taken in response to Qatar’s violations of international law.\n\nThe countries led by Saudi Arabia allege without providing evidence that Qatar has been supporting terrorism. Even if individual Qataris (or Saudis, for that matter) have funded terrorist organizations in the past, there remains the legal challenge of demonstrating that the government of Qatar was complicit and that therefore the actions constituted “state action” for which the government of Qatar acquired state responsibility under international law.\n\n![Saudi Arabia.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmXfs6M4BfF42C4YXMPr8UTidzuqazwc16VZ2zRX31HU2V/Saudi%20Arabia.jpg)\n\n\nThe Saudi-led coalition has failed to provide specific details and evidence of the charges. If the collective action of a group of states, without warning and without resort to the dispute resolution provisions of the Charter of the Gulf Community States, or other dispute resolution mechanisms, constitutes intervention in the internal and external affairs of Qatar in violation of the international law principle of non-intervention, then their actions are unlawful and themselves incur state responsibility including liability for damages.\n\nGiven the geographic features of the countries involved in the ground blockade, and the ganging up on Qatar by boycotting its airlines and sea communications, a very strong case of illegal intervention may be presented.\n\nThe only possible justification for such actions in that case would be if they were adopted as what is known in international law as “countermeasures”, which must follow strict conditions in their adoption, including the principle of proportionality to the alleged violations of international law, and the objective of bringing such violations to a halt.\n\nIf the blockade and boycotts are not promptly lifted as the result of mediation efforts led by Kuwait and/or others, the dispute should be submitted to one or more international tribunals for binding resolution.\n\nSaudi Arabia and the United States have not offered any persuasive legal justification under international law for the adoption of these actions.\n\nPending such justifications — which must hold up to legal scrutiny — the blockade and other actions must be regarded as extremely serious violations of international law.\n\nThe Trenchant Observer",
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      "body": "Saudi Arabia and a group of Arab states have initiated a land blockade of Qatar, an air blockade of Qatar aircraft entering their airspace, and the expulsion of Qatari diplomatic staff and citizens from their countries with very short time frames.\n\nPresident Trump has apparently led or encouraged the actions.\n\nThese actions appear to be in open violation of the basic principle of non-intervention in international law. The governments responsible for the blockade (land entry) or boycott appear to base their legal case on the claim that the actions were in effect “retorsions” under international law, that is, lawful actions that they were authorized to freely take. Much of their justification seems to rest, however, on an argument that they were lawful countermeasures (non-forcible reprisals) taken in response to Qatar’s violations of international law.\n\nThe countries led by Saudi Arabia allege without providing evidence that Qatar has been supporting terrorism. Even if individual Qataris (or Saudis, for that matter) have funded terrorist organizations in the past, there remains the legal challenge of demonstrating that the government of Qatar was complicit and that therefore the actions constituted “state action” for which the government of Qatar acquired state responsibility under international law.\n\n![Saudi Arabia.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmXfs6M4BfF42C4YXMPr8UTidzuqazwc16VZ2zRX31HU2V/Saudi%20Arabia.jpg)\n\n\nThe Saudi-led coalition has failed to provide specific details and evidence of the charges. If the collective action of a group of states, without warning and without resort to the dispute resolution provisions of the Charter of the Gulf Community States, or other dispute resolution mechanisms, constitutes intervention in the internal and external affairs of Qatar in violation of the international law principle of non-intervention, then their actions are unlawful and themselves incur state responsibility including liability for damages.\n\nGiven the geographic features of the countries involved in the ground blockade, and the ganging up on Qatar by boycotting its airlines and sea communications, a very strong case of illegal intervention may be presented.\n\nThe only possible justification for such actions in that case would be if they were adopted as what is known in international law as “countermeasures”, which must follow strict conditions in their adoption, including the principle of proportionality to the alleged violations of international law, and the objective of bringing such violations to a halt.\n\nIf the blockade and boycotts are not promptly lifted as the result of mediation efforts led by Kuwait and/or others, the dispute should be submitted to one or more international tribunals for binding resolution.\n\nSaudi Arabia and the United States have not offered any persuasive legal justification under international law for the adoption of these actions.\n\nPending such justifications — which must hold up to legal scrutiny — the blockade and other actions must be regarded as extremely serious violations of international law.\n\nThe Trenchant Observer",
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      "body": "The rise of an authoritarian leader in the United States, who through outrageous lies, thuggish behavior, and the assistance of a large-scale Russian intervention in the 2016 elections, became President, would be great material for a movie but in fact be unbelievable, unless of course it actually happened.\n\nDuring his campaign in 2016, the transition, and now his four months in office, Donald Trump has erased the boundaries of the impermissible, the unthinkable, and the very concept of the truth itself.\n\nNow, in 2017, we can for perhaps the first time in many decades understand what happened after 1932 with the rise of the National Socialist Parry and its leader in Germany. Timothy Snyder in “On Tyranny” describes the gradual acceptance by ordinary and erstwhile upright and honorable men and women of behavior which in earlier years had been unthinkable.\n\nWhat is astounding is how fast the standards of decency and democratic life have fallen victim to the mean-spirited and hate-filled ideology of Trump and his supporters, and the ever-growing number of yes-men and apologists who are found among Republicans in Congress and in the party as a whole.\n\nMany critics of Trump lean over backwards to insist we try harder to understand the hardships and frustrations of  his core supporters. Few are willing or courageous enough to pass judgment on these voters, who made a Faustian bargain to accept Trump’s hate, his attack on the truth, and his attack on the institutions of our democracy, including an independent press, in exchange for what he seemed to offer.\n\n![Trump_signing_order_January_27.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmVi6YSKN7e2iAp4abPpY2aAyn4N2esEeNhu1uwVFtPTFv/Trump_signing_order_January_27.jpg)\n\nHe offered an endless profusion of illusory promises of jobs and making America great again, which persuaded his poor and undereducated base. He also held out the promise of curbing immigration.  Others, guided by their own ideology of primitive capitalism, followed and continue to support Trump out of cynical calculations that under Trump they will be able to redistribute wealth and welfare to the rich.\n\nSo Faustian bargains, of two varieties, have given impetus to the authoritarian movement of Donald Trump.\n\nAt present, it seems that Trumpism has taken over the minds of upwards of 40% of those who vote. Snyder recounts how, during the rise of Nazism, individuals suddenly flipped to become Nazis, succumbing to the power of mass psychology. Eugene  in his play “Rhinoceros”, depicted such metamorphoses by showing those who suddenly flipped as assuming the form of a rhinoceros.\n\nIn America today we can see many politicians who have now assumed the form of a rhinoceros. The unthinkable has become normal. They argue that the unacceptable must be understood. They lie.  They lie big time. They twist themselves into pretzels defending untruths.\n\nCritics reassure themselves that everything is under control, and that the democratic institutions of the country will contain the excesses of Trump and Trumpism.\n\nWhile in the end they may be right, an honest observer would be constrained to admit that the outcome is uncertain.\n\nTrump and his supporters could win the struggle for the soul of the country.\n\nTo appreciate that possibility we need only look at what they have achieved so far.\n\nFor example, they have achieved the normalization and acceptance of monstruous lies, such as those contained in Trump’s new budget proposal, or in the statements of those who defend the health care bill that recently passed the house.\n\nThey have rendered the democratic principles of conflict-of-interest and nepotism nearly meaningless.\n\nThey have turned American foreign policy on its head, jettisoning the defense of human rights while cozying up to authoritarian regimes. They have weakened NATO’s mutual self-defense commitments, while supporting those who would undermine the European Union.\n\nTrump has already destroyed much of the fabric of civic life, where discourse in a democratic society can only be conducted with a certain respect for facts and the truth.\n\nThe most frightening fact is that after all his lies have been revealed for what they are, Trump continues to enjoy strong support among 35-40% of the population.\n\nThis is what has happened to America, in the last two years.\n\nSee David Ignatius, “Get ready for the ‘impeachment election’,” The Washington Post, May 23, 2017. Ignatius writes:\n\n“Under our Constitution, the House and Senate are prosecutor and jury, respectively, for serious presidential misconduct. But this legal process probably won’t be triggered without a poisonously divisive election. If recent history teaches anything, it’s unfortunately this harsh fact: In the battle for America’s soul, Trump could win.”\n\nWhat lies ahead can only be viewed with extreme foreboding, so long as Trump and the rhinoceres who support him retain their hold on power.\n\nEach day they chip away a little more at our concepts of the truth,  of decency, and of the bulwarks against authoritarian behaviors that exist  in a democracy.\n\nWe are desensitized. The outrage is drained from our souls. We begin to make excuses for Trump and his rhinoceroses.\n\nWe begin to acquiesce.\n\nThe Trenchant Observer",
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      "body": "Saudi Arabia and a group of Arab states have initiated a land blockade of Qatar, an air blockade of Qatar aircraft entering their airspace, and the expulsion of Qatari diplomatic staff and citizens from their countries with very short time frames.\n\nPresident Trump has apparently led or encouraged the actions.\n\nThese actions appear to be in open violation of the basic principle of non-intervention in international law. The governments responsible for the blockade (land entry) or boycott appear to base their legal case on the claim that the actions were in effect “retorsions” under international law, that is, lawful actions that they were authorized to freely take. Much of their justification seems to rest, however, on an argument that they were lawful countermeasures (non-forcible reprisals) taken in response to Qatar’s violations of international law.\n\nThe countries led by Saudi Arabia allege without providing evidence that Qatar has been supporting terrorism. Even if individual Qataris (or Saudis, for that matter) have funded terrorist organizations in the past, there remains the legal challenge of demonstrating that the government of Qatar was complicit and that therefore the actions constituted “state action” for which the government of Qatar acquired state responsibility under international law.\n\nThe Saudi-led coalition has failed to provide specific details and evidence of the charges. If the collective action of a group of states, without warning and without resort to the dispute resolution provisions of the Charter of the Gulf Community States, or other dispute resolution mechanisms, constitutes intervention in the internal and external affairs of Qatar in violation of the international law principle of non-intervention, then their actions are unlawful and themselves incur state responsibility including liability for damages.\n\nGiven the geographic features of the countries involved in the ground blockade, and the ganging up on Qatar by boycotting its airlines and sea communications, a very strong case of illegal intervention may be presented.\n\nThe only possible justification for such actions in that case would be if they were adopted as what is known in international law as “countermeasures”, which must follow strict conditions in their adoption, including the principle of proportionality to the alleged violations of international law, and the objective of bringing such violations to a halt.\n\nIf the blockade and boycotts are not promptly lifted as the result of mediation efforts led by Kuwait and/or others, the dispute should be submitted to one or more international tribunals for binding resolution.\n\nSaudi Arabia and the United States have not offered any persuasive legal justification under international law for the adoption of these actions.\n\nPending such justifications — which must hold up to legal scrutiny — the blockade and other actions must be regarded as extremely serious violations of international law.\n\nThe Trenchant Observer",
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      "body": "Saudi Arabia and a group of Arab states have initiated a land blockade of Qatar, an air blockade of Qatar aircraft entering their airspace, and the expulsion of Qatari diplomatic staff and citizens from their countries with very short time frames.\n\nPresident Trump has apparently led or encouraged the actions.\n\nThese actions appear to be in open violation of the basic principle of non-intervention in international law. The governments responsible for the blockade (land entry) or boycott appear to base their legal case on the claim that the actions were in effect “retorsions” under international law, that is, lawful actions that they were authorized to freely take. Much of their justification seems to rest, however, on an argument that they were lawful countermeasures (non-forcible reprisals) taken in response to Qatar’s violations of international law.\n\nThe countries led by Saudi Arabia allege without providing evidence that Qatar has been supporting terrorism. Even if individual Qataris (or Saudis, for that matter) have funded terrorist organizations in the past, there remains the legal challenge of demonstrating that the government of Qatar was complicit and that therefore the actions constituted “state action” for which the government of Qatar acquired state responsibility under international law.\n\nThe Saudi-led coalition has failed to provide specific details and evidence of the charges. If the collective action of a group of states, without warning and without resort to the dispute resolution provisions of the Charter of the Gulf Community States, or other dispute resolution mechanisms, constitutes intervention in the internal and external affairs of Qatar in violation of the international law principle of non-intervention, then their actions are unlawful and themselves incur state responsibility including liability for damages.\n\nGiven the geographic features of the countries involved in the ground blockade, and the ganging up on Qatar by boycotting its airlines and sea communications, a very strong case of illegal intervention may be presented.\n\nThe only possible justification for such actions in that case would be if they were adopted as what is known in international law as “countermeasures”, which must follow strict conditions in their adoption, including the principle of proportionality to the alleged violations of international law, and the objective of bringing such violations to a halt.\n\nIf the blockade and boycotts are not promptly lifted as the result of mediation efforts led by Kuwait and/or others, the dispute should be submitted to one or more international tribunals for binding resolution.\n\nSaudi Arabia and the United States have not offered any persuasive legal justification under international law for the adoption of these actions.\n\nPending such justifications — which must hold up to legal scrutiny — the blockade and other actions must be regarded as extremely serious violations of international law.\n\nThe Trenchant Observer",
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