Bush/GOP's Conspiracy Against United Nations, Treaties & Allies
"The International Criminal Court (ICC) was established in 2002 as a permanent tribunal to prosecute individuals for genocide crimes against humanity, war crimes and crimes of aggression." Sounds like a good idea to me, and to the 141+ countries that ratified or signed on to it. But Bush/GOP, representing America, refused to sign-on and even heatedly cited these objections to the court, to wit:
1. National sovereignty
2. Universal Jurisdiction
3. Politically motivated prosecutions
4. Accountability
5. Separation of powers
6. Undermining the UN Security Council
7. Non-jury trials
I can see how reasonable people could have some reservations about these issues. Take non-jury trials for instance. The OJ Simpson case and the trials of the "Jenna Six" prove the soundness of having uneducated, ignorant, emotional, racist juries deciding complicated high-law criminal cases....especially those involving racism-based crimes like genocide. And the amateur historians among us know that Nuremburg was a prime example of trial-by-jury at its best....not.
Mostly what I fail to see is how Bush's objection to the jury trial (ICC lack thereof) provision jibes with his illegal; unconstitutional (so ruled the US Supreme Court) attempt to try the Guantanamo Bay inmates with tribunals instead of juries.
And Gitmo brings into question a few others of his "objections" to international justice such as: "national sovereignty" (of Afghanistan and Iraq) and "politically motivated prosecutions." So what was the real reason Bush/GOP refused to sign on to the ICC?
Well if you look at reason number 6. Undermining the UN Security Council, a mountain of contradiction springs to life. Who, in United Nations history, ever undermined the UN Security Council any more than Bush did? The short answer is nobody. But the USA has a lengthy history of using its veto to undermine democratically adopted UN Security Council resolutions: (http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/geoff/UNresolutions.htm).
Here are a few samples:
• 1972 Condemns Israel for killing hundreds of people in Syria & Lebanon in air raids.
• 1973 Affirms the rights of the Palestinians and calls on Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories.
• 1976 Condemns Israel for attacking Lebanese civilians.
• 1976 Condemns Israel for building settlements in the occupied territories.
• 1976 Calls for self determination for the Palestinians.
• 1976 Affirms the rights of the Palestinians.
• 1978 Urges the permanent members (USA, USSR, UK, France, China) to insure United Nations decisions on the maintenance of international peace and security.
• 1978 Criticizes the living conditions of the Palestinians.
• 1978 Condemns the Israeli human rights record in occupied territories
Needless to say this is a big part of the reason Islamic Jihad terrorists see America as an Israeli ally and enabler, and have targeted Americans, starting BTW with Bobby Kennedy....not 9/11.
Bush of course took "Undermining the UN Security Council" to a whole new level when he sent Colin Powell with a satchel full of lies, forged documents and photographs to sell the case for invading Iraq to the UN. They didn't buy it.
Bush then withdrew a US-proposed resolution for invasion when it was clear it would be defeated, arrogantly deciding he didn't need their approval anyway. Then Bush warned the United Nations weapons inspectors and personnel out of Iraq or face America's military death machine. Then Bush invaded Iraq anyway, essentially unilaterally, against the democratic will of the Security Council.
To their everlasting shame, wizened credibility, power and moral disgrace the United Nations did nothing in the face of Bush's illegal and defiant actions against them and a member sovereign state. They have never recovered their dignity or authority.
Bush and the GOP from that day forward sought to undermine and further diminish the UN in every way possible, scandalizing them with the Oil For Food Program in which a paltry few hundred thousand dollars, of untold (untolled?) billion$ in dirty money, reached some UN hands, though the US corporate mainstream media never revealed that the bribe money that fueled and financed Saddam, and circumvented....ahhhh...the UN Security Council sanctions and embargo.... came from the multi-national oil/corporate cartel....the "have-mores."
I guess the International Criminal Court would have to go some to match Bush's record of "undermining the UN Security Council"!!
"The Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is an amendment to the international treaty on climate change, assigning mandatory emission limitations for the reduction of greenhouse gases emissions to the signatory nations." 169 countries have signed on, but Bush/GOP kept the USA out, and notably Australia, another Iraq ally, has stood clear of it.
Though hardly comparable to the marginalizing of the United Nations, the USA rebut of the Kyoto Protocol like the ICC brings into clear focus the true agenda of Bush/GOP, and whose interests they really serve.
So where does this all lead?
It's no real secret to anybody with a brain bigger than a peanut, that the multi-national monopolistic corporate cartel of American business, the Bush/GOP "have-mores" base, has been gleefully operating in the legal netherworld of globalization for many years now. The World Trade Organization is a relatively new face for support and derision, but the real bosses have been in place for...dare I say?....many decades. The very idea of stopping globalization is absurdly waaay late. The world was globalized in 1945, but since the economic collapse of the USSR, it has been the oyster of Western business interests, meaning chiefly American multi-national corporations.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
