surrounding events are recent, and were heavily covered in the Western press, including both the original assault on Kuwait and the later wartime Iraqi actions directed against Saudi Arabia and Israel. The beginning and conduct of the Iran Iraq war are also well reported.19 Both episodes are strikingly free of murky surroundings; there were no series of escalating incidents, no staged provocations, no "revolutions" or insurgencies promoted by the invading powers, to present complications of fact. They were in both cases straightforward, unabashed military invasions. There are questions of law that can be raised about these actions regarding, for example, the origin and legitimacy of the predominantly British drawn international baundaries in the region20 but hardly any at all about the facts of invasion.
It is in the area of secondary and consequent offenses that the question of evidence becomes much more complicated. These offenses are, in general, crimes committed against individuals or groups by Iraqi military, security, or intelligence personnel. The historical basis of these offenses are the "recognized rules of land ware," often called the Holland rules after the compiler of a classic summation of them.21 These rules include limitations on the methods of war (e.g., the prohibition of certain types of munitions, such as chemical munitions); on the treatment of military prisoners of war; and on outrages committed _________
20For an introduction to the post World War I maneuverings that laid the groundwork for the present day Middle East, see David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace (New York: Avon Books, 1989), especially 449ff.
against civilian populations. The evidence for some such offenses are clearcut. The use of civilians as "human shields" is specifically prohibited. Several thousand Western hostages were so used, and many of them are readily available to give their testimony. Many...