Will America Keep the World Safe for Genocide?
Your State Department Is Trying To
Last week the State Department announced it was going to war. Not a war against a country. Wars between nations have largely ended thanks to President Trump’s ceasefire-making ability.
Nor is it a war on drugs. That conflict has been going on since President Nixon declared drug abuse “public enemy number one.” It has entered a new phase, however, as the United States has taken to directly attacking boats believed to be transporting drugs.
And it is not even a war on Low T. That one is already being waged by the Department of War and Other Manly Pursuits. And it will soon be won because everyone who wants to join the military now will have to arm wrestle Secretary Hegseth to get in.
In this newest war the enemy is an international organization. Not just any international organization as we simply drop out of any of those that we don’t like. This is one we never joined and yet, according to the State Department, is “an intolerable threat to U.S. sovereignty.”
Secretary of State Rubio took to the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal to warn us of the threat. He described the organization as being “run by a powerful network of leftist nongovernmental organizations, smug globalists, and hostile Third World governments united by their enmity towards the U.S.” Even worse, he said this cabal of smug America haters has “near-unlimited reach, empowered to override the courts and constitutions of the U.S. and other sovereign states and to prosecute and arrest our citizens.”
This fearsome enemy is the International Criminal Court, but it is not new. It has been seen by some as a grave threat ever since it was established in 2002. The Bush administration freaked out about it fearing what they were about to do would result in some of its officials having to face the ICC. That’s because the decision to invade Iraq had long since been made. All that was left to do was to finish fabricating a case to sell the American public on the idea before it began the next year. Since the UN was not going to authorize the use of military force because of the threat from weapons of mass destruction that did not exist, the war was clearly going to illegal under international law.
So, the Bush league went to work stoking the fires of jingoism that were already burning hot in the wake of the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Congress immediately passed the American Servicemembers’ Protection Act. That legislation became informally known as the Hague Invasion Act because it said the president could use force to free any American jailed by the ICC, which is headquartered in the Hague.
It should have been called the American Presidents and Other Politicians Protection Act because that was the real concern. And it is the same motivation again today. America has embarked on another illegal war, this time without the president even bothering to inform congress or the public in advance why it was necessary. Not to mention the cruelty with which immigrants are being treated and the hundreds of people killed for the crime of being in a small boat off the coast of Venezuela, both of which might also attract the ICC’s attention.
Because the ICC could have several charges to pursue against the regime in power inside the Beltway, the State Department’s crusade was launched. It aims to convince the governments of the ICC’s 125 member countries to withdraw from it or risk losing “the benefits of the U.S. security umbrella.” One problem with that is 70 percent of the ICC’s budget comes from ten countries: Japan, Germany, France, Britain, Italy, South Korea, Canada, Spain, Brazil, and Australia. Taking away the “security umbrella” from all those countries and many more would leave it about as large as one of those little paper parasols that are used to decorate tropical cocktails. And do we want to add one more attempt at intimidation of our closest allies who are already constantly threatened with tariffs and walking away from defense treaties like NATO? A zero-sum foreign policy of all sticks and no carrots is only going to alienate our friends and delight our enemies.
But despite all the State Department hysteria, and handwringing editorials from rightwing publications and pundits, Trump shouldn’t be afraid that he might have to face justice someday. The ICC was largely created to deal with war lords and dictators who had nothing to fear from the judicial system in their countries. And even though the Supreme Court has created such a situation in this country by telling Trump he can commit any crime he wants as long as he describes it as an official act, he can relax and get back to redecorating the White House.
In theory the ICC could issue an arrest warrant for a former U.S. president, but it still has to be enforced. Since Trump suffered no consequences whatsoever for his attempted overthrow of American democracy on January 6th, 2020, it is unimaginable that the American political system would ever have the wherewithal to hand him over to an international court just for crimes against humanity and other offenses.
In addition, the ICC is unlikely to take on such a controversial case. In its nearly quarter century of existence, it had managed to indict only 73 people in the 17 investigations it has conducted. And thus far only ten people have gone to prison as a result. During its time in existence the ICC has spent nearly $4 billion demonstrating that international justice is as expensive as it is slow.
The real question is do we want our government attempting to destroy what little effectiveness the ICC has? Do we want to signal to people like Putin, Netanyahu, and war lords and dictators everywhere that they need not worry about being prosecuted for any crime they commit? Is that what the U.S.A. now stands for?