Thursday, July 3, 2003 

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US hypocrisy astounding

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The United States has flexed its muscles once more by announcing a suspension of military aid to about 35 countries that ignored a deadline to exempt its soldiers from jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.

The court, inaugurated in March, was created under a 1998 treaty to prosecute genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Why the mightiest economic and military power on earth would want to act outside the purview of such a court has never been adequately explained. But the only conclusion one can draw hardly needs stating - that the US military has been, or will be, committing just the kind of crimes the international court will be trying.

This reveals deep hypocrisy. Since the end of the Second World War, the US has been at the forefront of internationalism when it comes to trying the kind of crimes outlined.

This applied to the Nazi war crime trials and to the ongoing trials from conflicts of more recent vintage in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. The US, in fact, has been actively involved in hunting down and bringing to book suspects from all those conflicts.

Now the US argues that the international court could be used to unfairly to try American soldiers involved in international military or humanitarian actions.

Yet it is instructive the US is not opposed to establishing the court. It only wants its own military granted permanent immunity from genocide and war crimes trials.

We can only assume that the US will also want to reserve for itself the right to haul leaders and soldiers of other countries before those very courts. 

Incidentally, the administration of President Bill Clinton signed the treaty, only for the present administration to nullify the signature.

This is the same administration that reneged on arms-control treaties signed with the Soviet Union and international agreements on environmental protection.

It is also the administration that wants to portray itself as an honest broker over global affairs. Really! 



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