Does the U.S. invasion of Iraq without Security Council sanction, and in the absence of actual threats or hostilities from Iraq, constitute a material breach of the UN charter qualifying as a war crime? Probably so. Will charges be filed against Bush or Blair? Probably not. The veto game cuts both ways, and both the U.S. and UK are permanent members of the UN Security Council, with full veto powers.
The chart for the conflict is very illustrative both of the issues that created it, and which it raises, as well as describing the tone of the early days of the action, particularly when Galactic Points such as Black Holes and Masers are added.
Black Holes are collapsed stellar remnants whose gravitational forces are so great, not even light can escape them. They implode into a pinpoint of space which sucks in all matter and energy within its range, which can be considerable; current astrophysics theory states that at the center of every galaxy is a supermassive Black Hole running the show. Astrologically they describe the volte face, the sudden, unexpected and complete reversal of the status quo reality, to be supplanted by another, one wholly different and often unrecognizable from what went before. They are points of energy drain and energy attraction, promote extreme unpredictability, and are massively powerful.
Masers are Deep Space anomalies which eject huge jets of gaseous material from their cores in volatile and intense eruptions; astrologically, they act as "cosmic cattle prods," with overwhelming, even disabling bursts of erratic energy. They are like Uranus to the tenth power, as Black Holes are like a higher dimension of Pluto.
When we examine the chart for Operation Iraqi Freedom, we can glean some interesting insights into the respective ways this war impacts the U.S. and Iraq, by setting it conjointly in the capitals of each. A first missile salvo was launched on Baghdad at a "Target of Opportunity" at approximately 9:30 PM EST Wednesday, March 19, 2003, Washington time (5:30 AM Thursday, March 20, local Baghdad time). The differing angles and house placements at the two venues are quite revealing.
Washington's Angles show Black Hole Dionysos at 7 Scorpio conjunct the 8 Scorpio Ascendant, with a Maser exactly conjoined the Descendant at 8 Taurus, another at 13 Leo conjunct the 15 Leo Midheaven, and Black Hole Attis at 13 Aquarius conjunct the 15 Aquarius Nadir. Scorpio's death and destruction aspects aptly describe the Ascendant's interface with the world—this is a war, after all, and one purportedly being fought over weapons of mass destruction. The Black Hole so prominent here indicates a great deal of energy being sucked into the effort—time, money, lives, ordnance—as well as more than a few surprises and twists of fate before the end is reached.
It also describes the swift turnaround in the way the world sees the U.S. The incredible global outpouring of support in the aftermath of the 9/11 tragedy and the fount of goodwill it created have been squandered by the cowboy tactics and inflammatory rhetoric of the Bush administration, which have dramatically altered the way others perceive us, heightening the negative image of a self-righteous, power-obsessed and willful nation bringing massive force to bear upon a weak and mismatched adversary.
The Masers at the Midheaven and the Descendant describe the volatile, erratic U.S. leadership and the extreme tension the situation has created in our relations with other nations, many of them former friends and allies such as France, as well as traditional philosophic adversaries such as Russia and China. Black Hole Attis at the Nadir indicates the yawning maw of our insecurities which have propelled us into this conflict, as well as the changes being made in our lifestyles by other sectors of this umbrella "War on Terror" such as the erosion of the Bill of Rights, one of the foundations (Nadir) of our governmental system.
Neptune is also at that Nadir, itself conjunct Black Hole Kybele at 12 Aquarius, a firm indicator that oil is indeed the root cause of the conflict, and adding a religious/ philosophical flavor of Crusade to the campaign, which Islam is all too ready to acknowledge. Kybele and Attis, by the way, are a pair of deities of Middle East extraction, the Great Mother and her son/lover, a spirit of vegetation who castrates himself and dies for love of her, and is reborn each spring.
Pluto exactly conjunct Black Hole Ereshkigal at 19 Sagittarius is the guiding spirit behind this enterprise, as has been described in the author's earlier articles on the conflict (see "Dubya Dubya III" in the February Daykeeper, and also Part One of this article). This potent conjunction falls in the Second House of finances in the Washington chart, a clear indicator of the enormous expenditure the war and subsequent reconstruction efforts will require, and a possible marker of economic devastation. Ereshkigal is half of a sister goddess act from ancient Sumer, now part of Iraq, and relates to the Right Brain, the emotive, nonintellectual, instinctual part, which acts without reason based on stimulus.
Warmonger Mars follows close by at 9 Capricorn, from where it tightly opposes a manifestation-evoking Quasar in the Eighth House of Death, also tenanted by Saturn, traditional Lord of Death, at 22 Gemini, indicating the role corporate structures have had in this conflict, but perhaps also acting to keep the U.S. death toll down. It further represents the U.S.' chief executive.
The Sun and Mercury conjoin at 27 and 29 Pisces, straddling the singularity (center) of Black Hole Quetzalcoatl and square the Galactic Center at 26 Sagittarius, indicating the universal impact of the confrontation and the possibility of global escalation (Syria and Russia have both been accused of selling arms and sensitive military equipment to Iraq, and were given warning shots across their bows by the Bush administration). The Sun of the War conjunct a Black Hole indicates an unexpected outcome, or at any rate, an unexpected progress to an inevitable outcome, as well as reiterating the vast amounts of energy consumed by this conflict in all its forms, political, diplomatic, military, humanitarian and ecological.
From Baghdad the angles form a very different, but just as apt, perspective. Here we see Aquarius on the Ascendant, very ably providing the war's double-speak pseudonym, "Operation Iraqi Freedom." At 22 Aquarius, the Ascendant is just three degrees shy of a manifestation-producing Quasar at 25 Aquarius and is semisquare (45 degrees) Mars at 9 Capricorn and sesquiquadrate (135 degrees) its opposed Quasar at 8 Cancer.
Venus at 20 Aquarius closely conjoins the Ascendant, and this may seem strange until we recall that among this Roman Goddess of Love's antecedents and precursors is Ishtar, ancient Akkadian goddess of Love and War, who issued from these same sands seven millennia ago and who was identified with the same planet/goddess, earlier Sumerian Inanna, later Semitic-Anatolian Astarte, Greek Aphrodite, and eventually Roman Venus. The fierceness of this Lioness of the Desert still echoes in the unexpectedly heavy resistance met by the Coalition forces in contact with Iraqi military, paramilitary, and civilian suicide units in the early days of the conflict.
The 5 Sagittarius Midheaven exactly conjoins Black Hole Osiris, and the Tenth House is also tenanted by stationary Pluto atop Ereshkigal, another deity hailing from the region, both indicators of the ultimate and inevitable downfall and destruction of the Hussein regime, and the incredible devastation wrought upon the government of Iraq. Osiris, of course, is Lord of the Dead and also of Egyptian/Eastern Mediterranean origin.
The Sun in the Second House shows the essential basis of the conflict to be rooted in the nation's wealth and resources, which for Iraq is of course oil, while the Black Hole conjunction also indicates and prefigures the complete revisioning and restructuring of the Iraqi state during reconstruction. Saturn in the Fourth House indicates the occupying force in the Iraqi homeland, as well as the firm foundations of the present administration, which may only be rooted out with delay, frustration, and deadly determination. The Moon, representing the public, falls in the Eighth House of Death, in contrast to the Washington chart Moon, which in the Twelfth indicates the invisible and silent majority of Americans who actually oppose this War, with sympathies ranging from overt demonstration to moral unease.
The UN's role in the conflict is seen in its chart (10.4.45) and its relation to that of the War. Its natal Mars/Saturn conjunction speaks volumes both for its mission as a global brake on conflict and its own inability to act effectively, as well as its squeamishness over authorizing the use of force. Its 22 Gemini Moon conjoins the War Saturn and is trined by the War Moon at 22 Libra and the Ascendant of the Baghdad chart at 22 Aquarius. This can be seen as an indicator of the negation (Saturn) of the will of the people (Moon) in response to the present fate of Iraq (Baghdad Ascendant).
The UN Charter specifically rules out the use of force except in self-defense, or as authorized by the Security Council, and although UN Resolution 1441 was passed unanimously and decreed "severe consequences" for Iraqi noncompliance in disarming, those consequences were never spelled out. One may justifiably assume war would be one possible outcome, but it is certainly not the only one. And in the face of staunch opposition for a subsequent specific War Resolution by a majority of the Security Council, and a majority of the UN's members, one can also justifiably assume that war was not the "serious consequence" intended by the 1441 majority, however logical that definition may seem to some.
If the United Nations is to have any meaning or worth at all, it must be as a nascent United States of the World. Most people forget this today, but the United States is not just our name; it's our description. Each of the 50 states and commonwealths is a sovereign state which had ceded certain of its powers to a federal government representing national interests, while retaining other rights and powers which it maintains control of.
When the American Revolution began, there was very little commonality of agreement on the fact that these states would unite to become one politically, only that they would jointly dislodge the British, and there was incredible bitterness and wrangling for more than a decade about what form the national union and federal government would take. This in a climate of shared interests and one predominant cultural perspective—essentially a Christian, European one—albeit accented differently in each colony due to ethnic influences.
Imagine, then, the difficulties of bringing together hundreds of nations under one global administrative umbrella, with the astounding mix of races, nations, governmental forms, cultures and religions extant worldwide. The fact that the UN has failed to accomplish this in less than 60 years is not surprising, given the nature of the challenge.
The United States has been a shining example both of how sovereign states can unite politically, and how the merging of cultures can be accomplished effectively and with positive benefit for all, but it must now fulfill its destiny on the world stage, which is to bring its example into global manifestation. To do so, it must subsume itself into the United Nations, or its successor organization, or fail utterly in the purpose for which it was created, just as each member colony in the Revolution subsumed itself into the Federal government.
This all U.S. administrations have been loathe to do, and quite probably the time is not yet here for global government, but we can and should respect the rules of the body to which we have pledged our membership, and support in any way its full maturation as a global governing and administrative structure. We should not be thwarting its wishes, flouting its authority, and taking matters into our own hands to do just as we damn well please.
Regimes such as the Taliban in Afghanistan and Hussein's in Iraq should be ousted, and should be stopped from barbarizing their own people or their neighbors, and probably so should clear threats and transgressors as Kim Jong-Il's North Korea or a dozen African regimes one could name. But these changes should be made through the UN, not because the United States has economic interests in the region. We are a nation of laws, and we should adhere to the ones of the International community which we have helped to devise and to which we have agreed.
That this war is about oil is certain; whether or not it is about U.S. control of that oil is another matter open to opinion, but at the very least the West needs to have Iraq's oil supply floated openly on the market again, whoever controls it and whoever buys it. The ongoing UN sanctions have been bottling up most of Iraq's oil for more than a decade, while Western commercial interests were aching to open new markets. An economic impasse had been reached with the Hussein government; something had to be done; Hussein had to go so the sanctions could, too.
To bill this as a humanitarian gesture and liberating act is a disgusting and loathsome example of public misdirection and deception and an insult to millions of maltreated human beings across the globe who are barbarized by their governments without our bothering to notice. To bill this as a pre-emptive act of self-defense is ludicrous and pitiable, and an example of demagoguery at its worst.
Alex Miller-Mignone is a professional writer and astrologer, author of The Black Hole Book and The Urban Wicca, former editor of "The Galactic Calendar," and past president of The Philadelphia Astrological Society.