America's Cynical Policy on Chemical Weapons

That was President Obama’s response this week to those who believe he wants to attack Syria in order to defend his own credibility. Secretary of State John Kerry said the same thing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. They were referring to the 88-year-old Geneva Protocol (Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare) and the 20-year-old Chemical Weapons Convention (Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction).
Although 189 nations, including the United States, are parties to the CWC, it doesn’t follow that the United States has been anointed to enforce it. In fact, U.S. action against Syria would in itself violate international law, which permits the use of force by one government against another only in self-defense or as part of a UN-authorized action. Neither applies in this case. (There are libertarian grounds against war even when the UN has authorized it.)
Because the gruesome images of children and other noncombatants killed and wounded allegedly by Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapons constitute a powerful part of Obama’s appeal for public support for his missile strike (or more), it pays to take a close look at the U.S. record on chemical weapons.

http://reason.com/archives/2013/09/10/the-cynical-us-policy-on-chemical-weapon