It's not political correctness to hold soldiers to account

[Spider Jerusalem]

Robin Cook
Friday July 22, 2005
The Guardian

The press pack in full cry is a terrifying vision. There should be special provision in the international criminal court to protect their quarry from inhumane and unnatural persecution. Except that this week it is the ICC itself that has been the target of their concerted outrage, because of the effrontery of the army in charging some of its soldiers with war crimes.

The rightwing press appears to have entered a competition for the headline that expresses the greatest indignation at the charges. The Telegraph claimed to have detected "Uproar", while the Mail reported "Fury". The Express, though, outdid both of them with a front-page splash proclaiming "Our heroes are thrown to the dogs", a particularly unfortunate choice of words, as it was the Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib who were literally thrown to the dogs by their US guards.

We must not be bullied into silence over the case for the ICC by such stridency. The international criminal court is a valuable step in putting future war criminals on notice that the world will not let them get away with murder because they can intimidate the legal system of their own country. That is why, as foreign secretary, I fully supported the negotiations that led to the setting up of the ICC, and Britain can be proud that its legal team was instrumental in getting mass rape and child conscription included in the jurisdiction of the court.

Those who now complain that Britain signed up to the ICC need to explain how we could have credibly lobbied at the UN for Darfur to be reported for prosecution if we ourselves had refused to recognise the powers of the court. We supported the ICC precisely so that the refusal of the sovereign state to act would not confer impunity for grotesque crimes, such as in Darfur where 100,000 people have been murdered in genocide, and girl children have been imprisoned naked in rape camps. There is some evidence that since the referral of Darfur to the ICC, the rate of killing has diminished as those responsible for the atrocities come to terms with the unexpected possibility that they may have to stand trial for their crimes.

more... http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1533959,00.html

[wli]

1. repeal Hague invasion act, condemn unconstitutional ICC treaty withdrawal

The "treaty withdrawals" the Shrub's done have been without acts of Congress to back them, and so are unconstitutional. They can still be enforced.