BDS The U.S. -- The World Must Hold the U.S. Government to the Rule of Law

We don't need a "Rules-Based Order." We need a U.S. government that obeys laws.

Since 1972, the U.S. government has been far and away the leading user of the veto in the UN Security Council, often blocking the will of every or nearly every other national government on Earth. It has vetoed U.N. condemnation of South African apartheid, Israel's wars and occupations, chemical and biological weapons, nuclear weapons proliferation and first use and use against non-nuclear nations, U.S. wars in Nicaragua and Grenada and Panama, the U.S. embargo on Cuba, Rwandan genocide, the deployment of weapons in outerspace, and much more. Dozens of times the U.S. has vetoed steps toward peace or justice in Palestine. And this is just scraping the surface. The primary use of the veto power is as an unrecorded threat of a veto made behind closed doors to keep many undesired topics off the public agenda entirely.

Using a U.S.-funded listing (by Freedom House) of the 50 most oppressive governments, one finds that the U.S. government approves U.S. weapons shipments to 82% of them, provides military training to 88% of them, funds the militaries of 66% of them, and assists in at least one of these ways 96% of them.

Few war-torn regions manufacture significant weapons. Few wars fail to have U.S.-made weapons on both sides. The U.S. government exports more weaponry than all other nations but two combined. Examples of wars with U.S.-made weapons on both sides are: Syria, Iraq, Libya, the Iran-Iraq war, the Mexican drug war, World War II. The proliferation of weapons out of the United States is devastating to people, peace, and global stability, but beneficial for the profits of powerful U.S. weapons manufacturers.

The U.S. government allows or even funds weapons shipments in violation of:

• the Geneva Conventions,
• the Genocide Convention,
• the Arms Trade Treaty to which the majority of the world's nations -- but not the United States -- are party,

as well as in violation of these U.S. laws:

• The U.S. War Crimes Act, which forbids grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, including willful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, and unlawful deportation or transfer.
• The Genocide Convention Implementation Act, which was enacted to implement U.S. obligations under the Genocide Convention, provides for criminal penalties for individuals who commit or incite others to commit genocide.
• The Conventional Arms Transfer Policy, which prohibits U.S. weapons transfers when it's likely they will be used to commit genocide; crimes against humanity; and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, including attacks intentionally directed against civilian objects or civilians protected or other serious violations of international humanitarian or human rights law, including serious acts of gender-based violence or serious acts of violence against children.
• The Foreign Assistance Act, which forbids the provision of assistance to a government which "engages in a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights."
• Arms Export Control Act, which says countries that receive US military aid can only use weapons for legitimate self-defense and internal security.
• The Leahy Law, which prohibits the U.S. Government from using funds for assistance to units of foreign security forces where there is credible information implicating that unit in the commission of gross violations of human rights.

The U.S. government spends more on its own military than all other nations but three combined, and pushes other nations to spend more, driving global militarism upward. Russia and China spend together 21% of what the U.S. and its allies spend.

The U.S. government, like the Russian government, maintains almost half of the nuclear weapons on Earth. The U.S. keeps nuclear weapons in six other nations, a practice used by Russia as an excuse to pursue the placement of nuclear weapons in Belarus -- a practice likely in violation of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which the U.S. government is also in clear violation of through its failure to work for nuclear disarmament. On the contrary, it is driving a costly new nuclear arms race.

Of course, the U.S. government is in open violation of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons to which it is not, but much of the world is, party.

The U.S. keeps weapons of war in dozens of nations around the globe, and both maintains and supplies others with weapons that violate numerous treaties to which the majority of the world's nations are party, and in some cases in violation of treaties to which the U.S. government was party before simply shredding the treaties. The U.S. withdrew from:

• The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty,
• The Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty,
• The Open Skies Treaty
• The Iran nuclear agreement.

The U.S. government stands outside and disregards:

• The Landmines Treaty,
• The Arms Trade Treaty,
• The Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Since 1945, U.S. military has fought in 74 other nations, while the U.S. government has overthrown at least 36 governments, interfered in at least 85 foreign elections, attempted to assassinate over 50 foreign leaders, dropped bombs on people in over 30 countries, and killed or helped kill some 20 million people. Its wars have tended to be very one-sided, with U.S. casualties making up a tiny fraction of the casualties.

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