The Shifting Winds
The U.S. may yet get on the right side of international justice:To Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), ranking member of the Appropriations foreign operations subcommittee, the verdict is already in. "The ICC has refuted its critics, who confidently and wrongly predicted that it would be politicized and manipulated by our enemies to prosecute U.S. soldiers," he said recently.So, the International Court has not been used to randomly prosecute soldiers, you say?
posted by Nathanael @ 6:45 PM
3 Comments:
Maybe not the ICC, but it looks like German courts are going to go after Rumsfeld et al over the Abu Graib affair.
To be fair as well, the German courts aren't the prosecuting agents, and it was an American organization, the Center for Constitutional Rights, taht filed the suite. It's still to be seen whether the court will take the case (and I suspet it won't).
But to throw the issue back to you, should Americans have blanket immunity, or enough to cover officials who must perform delicate missions (especially in the service of the international community)?
Blanket Immunity? No. But I have doubts about both the legitimacy and effectiveness of International Courts that have no real enforcement/punishment arm (from what I can tell, anyway). As for the "delicate missions," well, that is an area that could probably be covered by sovereignty and the like.
Post a Comment
<< Home