by Rob Dacosta

Created on: February 22, 2007   Last Updated: April 19, 2007

The International Criminal Court as it exists today was proposed at the Rome conference in July 1998 and came into being at a ratification treaty of the U.N. on April 11/2002.

Growing out of the need to prosecute nations for their war crimes it first took shape after the horrors of WWII but stalled during the Cold War due to political wrangling. It would then sit for more than 30 years until the need to prosecute guilty parties in Rwanda and Yugoslavia demanded a mechanism to punish 'crimes against humanity'.

It's interesting to note that the main opposition to the criminal court comes from four large and powerful (all nuclear armed) nations who have refused to sign onto the court.

China: Continuing record of human rights abuses.
Russia: Same as above. Multiple ongoing wars.
India: No reasonable answer given for refusing.
United States: Biggest warring nation on earth.

Of this group the United States is the most interesting and peculiar opponent to the I.C.C.

There has been a lot of ink spilled over this subject in the U.S. over the years and the yet the present government has largely managed to bury the issue. It's interesting to note though that President Clinton had signed on to the principle of the I.C.C. only to have President Bush veto it. He then launched the war in Iraq. Is there any wonder?

Americans talk at length about 'other countries' and usually with justification. China for instance continues its policy of mass killings in Tibet. Russia has had a series of ongoing regional conflicts in the Caucasus - notably Chechnya. The Sudanese government is currently committing genocide in Darfur.

And yet the United States launches a war in Iraq that 98 percent of humanity accepts as being wrong and ...... silence. By the time this ugly thing winds down the total number of deaths attributed to the war will number in the hundreds of thousands. Still ..... nothing but silence. Instead we have the invader blaming the invaded as the problem. After more than 4 years of #urban renewal' the country is in shambles and the Bush administration is now complaining that Iraqi's are not doing enough to set things straight.

Isn't it about time that someone was brought before a criminal court (the I.C.C. for instance) and prosecuted for this outrage? If America were really the peaceful nation that they insist they are and were not permanently involved in warring with other nations they would be banging the drum long and loud over the need to punish war criminals. This current President Bush is one such individual who shouldn't be allowed to hide behind the mask of hypocrisy.

Any wonder why the world is in the state we find it in?

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