Desert Storm: Legal Questions and Answers

Colonel Green, legal counsel to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke at a judicial conference at the U.S. Military Court of Appeals on legal issues brought up during the Persian Gulf war. From his position in the office of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Col. Green deals chiefly with issues of operational and international law. Col. Green explained the structure of the Department of Defense, particularly concerning the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the bureaucratic legal process. He described the status of the legal department of the Joint Chiefs of Staff before and during the Persian Gulf war, and said attorneys played a major role in the framing of issues supporting U.S. policy during the war. The goal of the legal department was to build a coalition under the United Nations' name that would effectively stand against Iraq’s aggression in the Middle East. The United Nations' charter, he continued, is not effective without a strong political convergence of many count close