4. The use of force to avert overwhelming humanitarian catastrophe has been emerging as a further, and exceptional, basis for the use of force.
As Australians poured out condolences, and Mr Howard pledged A$1 billion ($760m) in aid to Indonesia, its neighbour and the country worst hit, there was a crashing silence from Mr Latham.Over the next two weeks, the media demanded to know why the opposition leader had made no statement on such an overwhelming regional catastrophe.
The move comes as a statement released by the Government this afternoon stated that even if military action is blocked by the UN Security Council, "the UK would still be permitted under international law to take exceptional measures in order to alleviate the scale of the overwhelming humanitarian catastrophe in Syria".
Possible legal bases for the use of force: 2. As I have previously advised, there are generally three possible bases for the use of force: (a) self-defence (which may include collective self-defence); (b) exceptionally, to avert overwhelming humanitarian catastrophe; and (c) authorisation by the Security Council acting under Chapter VII of the UN Charter.
If action in the Security Council is blocked, the UK would still be permitted under international law to take exceptional measures in order to alleviate the scale of the overwhelming humanitarian catastrophe in Syria by deterring and disrupting the further use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime.
But "weakening Hamas" by producing mass civilian casualties and an overwhelming humanitarian catastrophe, that is something else.
For a natural catastrophe as overwhelming and as impersonal as this one, there is no one to blame or concentrate one's anger on, no sense to be made from the destruction.
Still, overwhelming is overwhelming.
Ms. Brown gives the example of watching your child sleep and feeling overwhelming love — and then quickly imagining some catastrophe befalling that child.
Instead, our society could have the compassion to say, "There but for the grace of God go I," and provide some sort of birth-catastrophe insurance to pay the overwhelming costs of raising a profoundly disabled child.
