IS the United States a rogue state? If it wasn't one before — though we have ample evidence to prove otherwise — it became one on Sunday when Hellfire missiles from a US drone killed Egyptian Ayman al-Zawahiri on the balcony of his house in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Washington claims that Zawahiri helped coordinate the Sept 11, 2001 attacks that are said to have killed close to 3,000 people. Do not get us wrong. We are not against terrorists being punished. No, not at all. Punish them by all means, but do so in accordance with the law.
Not execution-style, with no recourse to what the world will consider as the law properly so called. If a rogue state is one that has no regard for international law and poses a threat to the security of other nations, then the US is certainly one.
Afghanistan is an independent nation. And the US must treat it as such. Just because it illegally occupied the country before doesn't mean it owns it. Afghanistan isn't its 51st state.
The US may be the most militarily powerful nation on earth, but it doesn't mean that it can treat Kabul like it is Washington. This is a formula for global anarchy. What is worse is to execute someone and proudly declare that "justice has been delivered", as US President Joe Biden did in televised remarks.
The Taliban called the Sunday killing in Kabul a violation of international principles. We say it is more. It is a violation of international law.
What is more worrying is the threat Biden issued in the same remarks. Reuters, a news agency, quoted Biden thus: "No matter how long it takes, no matter where you hide, if you are a threat to our people, the US will find you and take you out."
Let's slice this threat. Start with "the US will find you and take you out". The US will find you, not the International Criminal Court or even the municipal courts. To the US, like it is to rogue states, no other nation is sovereign.
Never mind what the United Nations Charter proclaims, what Washington declares is the "law". Here is Biden again: the US will "take you out". No investigation, no charges and no trial. Just execution in situ. All that needs to happen is someone in Washington wakes up one day and declares that this or that fella is "a threat to our people".
No role for the rule of law, just bullets. Washington may not realise this, but it has just paved the way for other nations to be similarly roguish. Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran consider the US a threat to their people.
And rightly so, what with the occupation of Kabul and Baghdad, and the repeated killings of Iranians by American drones. Is the taking out of the Americans seen as a threat by these three countries a fair game? Measure for measure, as Shakespeare would say? Afghanistan, Iraq or Iran may not be militarily powerful enough to go for an eye for an eye.
But China has the lethal means to do so. Take Biden's words and give them Chinese characteristics, and Washington's formula for global anarchy becomes dangerously clear: "No matter where you hide, if you are a threat to our people, China will find you and take you out." Welcome to the rogues' gallery.