International Court Rejected (Again)

US To UN: We Won’t See You In Court on Plastic mentions recent U.S. moves to pull out of U.N. peacekeeping missions if their soldiers are not granted immunity from prosecution. The expressed reason is to avoid “politically motivated prosecutions of its officials or soldiers.” The real reason is probably the oft-mentioned ‘sometimes war just isn’t pretty’ mantra.

The express purpose of the ICC is a noble enough goal:

“…to help put an end to the past century’s cycle of impunity for the most serious crimes of international concern [and] decide on the criminal responsibility of individuals and act as a strong deterrent for possible future perpetrators”

The U.S. refusal to play along with the “other 14 members of the UN Security Council” is that the U.S. simply doesn’t have to. The fact that U.S. soldiers in combat or on patrol sometimes behave no better toward the citizens they’re charged to protect than the people they’re fighting is not seen as enough of a reason to set up an international system to do something about it. The court is seen as a ploy by the rest of the world to “lead to politically motivated prosecutions of its officials or soldiers”. Of course, the U.S. will act in its own best interests, as any other nation would and has a right to, but it should not do so to the unearned detriment of others, as it has done so many times.

The real problem, as seen by the international community, is that if the U.S. withdraws from the ‘peacekeeping’ mission in Bosnia, as they threaten to do if the ICC is put into effect, then the mission will almost certainly dissolve. The U.N. wants the U.S. troops, but wants to have them accountable for their actions; the U.S. knows the U.N. needs them, so can continue to demand that U.S. troops are only accountable to the U.S., and will not be subject to international oversight. Of course, with so many troops stationed all over the world, the U.S. has the most to lose from this legislation, as it would become increasingly difficult to sweep transgressions under the rug.