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The
President has gone too far
By
David
Krieger
President, The
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
TFF
associate
May 14, 2002
The president can no longer be considered simply a
vacuous puppet brought to power by big business, a family
name, and election fraud. He must now be viewed as a
dangerous opponent of our constitutional form of
government, international law and the international order
that was born in the aftermath of World War II.
The US withdrawal from the treaty establishing the
International Criminal Court, announced by the Bush
administration on May 6, 2002, has all the markings of a
watershed event, an event that could make one weep for
what it portends for the future of humanity and our
country. The Bush administration is marching ahead in its
assault on international law. Never before has a nation
removed its sovereign signature from a treaty. Now it is
done.
In a one paragraph letter to the United Nations
Secretary General, the US undersecretary of state for
arms control, John Bolton wrote, "The United States does
not intend to become a party to the treaty. Accordingly,
the United states has no legal obligations from its
signature on December 31, 2000." In other words, our
commitment means nothing. There is no reason for other
sovereign states to rely upon the commitments of the
United States. The administration has sent a clear signal
that the US will decide which laws it will support and
which it won't and the rest of the world be damned.
The Bush administration demonstrates little interest
in supporting international law. It is also pulling out
of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty to pursue missile
defenses and space weaponization. This is an
administration of militarists and unilateralists. They
talk about withdrawing from the International Criminal
Court because they fear that US servicemen could be
brought to justice under the provisions of the Court, but
what they really fear is that US leaders will be held to
the same set of standards that the Court will apply to
all leaders throughout the world.
In an article written in 1999, the same John Bolton
pointed out that it was not American soldiers that would
be in the most jeopardy, but rather "the president, the
cabinet officers who comprise the National Security
Council, and other senior civilian and military officers
responsible for our defense and foreign policy." But what
would US leaders have to fear if they do not commit the
most heinous of crimes under international law, crimes
such as genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes,
the same crimes for which the Nazis were held accountable
at Nuremberg?
Since Bush has become president, the United States has
increased its military budget by nearly $100 billion,
from $300 billion to almost $400 billion. Military power
is the administration's answer to international law.
Defense Secretary Rumsfeld talks in plain language about
our efforts to kill whomever we deem as our enemy. We are
breaking with our allies, who are committed to
international law. The US has become a unilateralist
superpower, a rogue superpower, a dangerous force for
international anarchy.
Bush's efforts to replace the force of law with the
law of force have been met by a thunderous silence from
the US Congress. The tragedy of Bush's assault on
international law and the US Constitution has been
matched by the cowardly timidity of the Congress, which
appears ready to give away its authority in foreign
policy to an aggressive and dictatorial president.
The United States, which has an unparalleled
opportunity to lead the world in upholding human rights
and achieving a just peace, has slipped precipitously
from the aftermath of World War II when it led the world
in bringing Nazi leaders to justice at the Nuremberg
Trials. The US chief prosecutor at Nuremberg, Justice
Robert Jackson, argued, "The law must also reach the men
who seize great power and deliberately combine to make
use of it to commit an evil which affects every home in
the world. The last step in preventing the periodic
outbreak of war, which is unavoidable with international
lawlessness, is to make a statesman responsible before
the law."
Bush's policies promote international lawlessness and
impunity under international law to leaders accused of
grave crimes such as Osama bin Laden, General Augusto
Pinochet, Idi Amin, Pol Pot and Henry Kissinger. The
president's policies encourage present and future leaders
to believe that their crimes will also be blessed with
impunity under the law. In the eyes of the world,
including those of our closest allies, these policies
underscore the US abdication of leadership in upholding
international law and human rights.
David Krieger is president of the Nuclear Age Peace
Foundation (www.wagingpeace.org).
He can be contacted at dkrieger@napf.org.
©
TFF & the author 2002
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