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Getting Away with the Supreme International Crime
by Kim Petersen
 The US and its coalition has been ground down by the Iraqi resistance, despite its vastly superior weaponry, despite plundering the Iraqi treasury, despite decimating the economy and infrastructure, despite the blatant divide-and-conquer strategy, despite, as my colleague B.J. Sabri wrote me;
"Here is the picture: over 1.5 million killed, 4 million refugees inside Iraq, 3 million outside Iraq,1 75% unemployed, cancer rates increased 20,000% since 2003, no medical system, no functioning economy, prostitution is rampant and Iraq has the highest number of women turned prostitutes more than any country that experience war, US detains over 28,000 Iraqis kids below age 18, and over 110,000 adults, US and Shiites divided Baghdad with concrete walls, electricity is available every 4-6 days, no clean water, gasoline is scarce, and the killers still kill and no one knows who is killing who except of course the Americans …"
I don’t care about international law. I don’t want to hear
the words ‘international law’ again. We are not concerned about
international law.
– US military judge in Guantánamo Bay
International Justice and Impunity: The Case of the United States
Edited by Nils Andersson, Daniel Iagolnitzer, and Diana G. Collier
Paperback: 304 pages
(Clarity Press, 2008)
ISBN: 978-0-932863-57-7
Despite everything, the US-led aggression and occupation has lost
the ground war. What the US ruling class fears most are scenes of
soldiers and collaborators scrambling for their lives to rooftop
helicopters in Baghdad. The military-industrial complex fears a new
strain of Vietnam Syndrome. George Jr would make his Dad look foolish
after George Sr had claimed that the US had kicked Vietnam Syndrome in
the butt forever.
That leaves strong-arming a capitulation from
“prime minister” Nouri al-Maliki and his quisling administration
installed under occupation. Just as a Vichy regime installed under Nazi
occupation was illegitimate, so is the “Iraqi” 2 regime installed under
US occupation (as is the Karzai regime in Afghanistan illegitimate
while under US-led occupation). Nevertheless, while the US occupation
is failing splendidly, the US ruling clique is attempting to win
Machiavellianly through the farce of a so-called Status of Forces
Agreement (SOFA), which is, essentially, an entrenchment of occupation
and a relinquishment of Iraqi sovereignty. The SOFA would turn over
military bases in Iraq to the US and allow for continued impunity of US
personnel.
The “culture of impunity” is well known of within the
United Nations, and UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon often comments on
it. He talked about “a serious culture of impunity” in Central African
Republic. 3 Prior to heading off to Sudan, Ban warned that “a culture of
impunity and a legacy of past crimes that go unaddressed can only erode
the peace.” 4 Most recently, at a memorial to slain reporters in London,
Ban said, “In tribute to their memory we must end the culture of
impunity surrounding crimes against reporters. We must bring the
perpetrators to justice.” 5
Clarity Press has published a book,
International Justice and Impunity: The Case of the United States, that
deals with the scourge of impunity that enables serial aggressions,
violations of human rights, and international laws. In Impunity, 26
experts make the case against impunity.
Author William Blum has
detailed the United State’s serial aggressions and military
interventions that violate the sovereignty of other states. Rarely has
the US been called to account for these international crimes. One
instance where it was called before the bench was when it suffered the
indignity of being found guilty of wielding an “unlawful use of force”
(i.e., “terrorism” as defined by the US Code of Federal Regulations) by
the International Court of Justice in 1986. In a blatant act of
impunity, the US disregarded the verdict and removed itself
unilaterally from the purview of the court. Likewise, the US refuses to
recognize the International Criminal Court’s jurisdiction over it, and
it has “negotiated” 6 bilateral treaties with a plethora of countries
removing referral to of any criminal American actions to the ICC — an
undermining of the ICC.
In fact, much of the policies and
actions of the US are directed to subverting international law and
international institutions, and often these actions
undermine/contradict the historiography of the US itself. For instance,
the US was a prime mover in the formation of the United Nations, a
central plank of whose Charter is to prevent the scourge of war upon
future generations. The US is a signatory to the Geneva Conventions
(although as Impunity co-editor Daniel Iagolnitzer acknowledges,
additional Protocol I of 1977 remains unratified by the US and other
countries) — conventions that the US, ostensibly, chooses to respect
and uphold at its convenience. The Waterboarding USA is also a
signatory to the UN Convention Against Torture. The US’s hackneyed
warmongering all-options-are on-the-table rhetoric against Iran, which
is legally developing its nuclear technology within the stipulations of
the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), exposes further the
hypocrisy underlying its imperialist agenda.
Under conditions
where fairness exists, it is axiomatic that one must not criticize one
state for alleged pursuit of nuclear weaponry while its client state,
Israel, possesses an armada of nuclear weapons built with western aid.
Arab states have called for a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East. The
US dismisses this, thus declaring itself for the existence of
unfairness in the world.
The US is a signatory to the NPT. As
former US attorney general Ramsey Clark points out, the NPT was
actually an abolition treaty: not only was it designed to prevent the
emergence of new nuclear weapons states, the states already in
possession of nuclear weapons were obliged to rid themselves of nuclear
weapons. Obviously, once again, disregard for treaty obligations and
fairness is abundantly evident to any neutral observer.
Clark
states that “equality is the mother of justice” and notes how the US
undermines the UN Charter through the creation of separate tribunals to
sit in judgement upon crimes as directed by US interests: for example,
the tribunals on Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.
Despite such
a treaty already being in place (the NPT), Hiroshima mayor Tadatoshi
Akiba works toward a universal nuclear weapons convention by 2010,
which would abolish all nuclear weapons. He states that public opinion
in the US indicates that two-thirds of Americans support such an
abolition.
Given the present Pax Americana mindset in the US
regime, there is negligible chance of the US giving up its nuclear
weapons. Egyptian professor Samir Amin lays clear the ruling class’s
aim: global military control, evidenced by plans dividing the planet
into zones of military control and the far-flung global network of US
military bases.
Amin describes how trans-national corporations
entrench a western-led, capitalist world order through spreading
neoliberalism via international organizations such as the International
Monetary Fund, World Bank, World Trade Organization, NATO, and the
G7/G8. According to Amir, consequent to the imperialist agenda is
securing tribute to imperial states through the indebting of poor
states. Amir states that Europe’s steadfast support of Empire is
signaled by the European corporate media’s silence on imperialism.
Maybe
the Europeans shouldn’t be so quick to hop on the American horse of
imperialism. Abraham Behar, president of the French section of the UN
Disarmament Commission in Geneva, states bluntly that rejection of
international treaties and “total enthrallment of all ‘allies’” is the
strategy of the George W. Bush administration.
Honorary
professor Monique Chemillier-Gendreau addressed the “large scale
targeting of the Vietnamese population” by the US, and argues that
there is no passage of time that allows the US to escape culpability
for reparations.
Noting the lawlessness in the US’s gulag in
Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, Amnesty International official Geneviève Sevrin
asks, “Would the United States tolerate such treatment of its citizens
by another government?” There is no adherence to fairness in US Empire.
Blum
asks if the host country of the conference on impunity (1) complains
about the undermining of the UN, and (2) whether France or any other
country decried the US-UK overflying and bombing of Iraqi airspace.
However, France is poorly positioned to condemn the no-fly zones since
it partook in the overflight of these zones. Moreover, France is very
much complicit in the undermining of the UN, as exemplified by its
participation in the aggressive coup against Haiti and the removal of
the Haitian’s people’s popularly elected president Jean Betrand
Aristide, exacerbating the humanitarian plight in Haiti.
Law
professor Robert Charvin examines the co-opting of humanitarianism by
the US and the West and concludes that humanitarian law has been
weakened as a result.
Charvin posits;
- “It cannot be accidental
that a rise in the importance of humanitarianism in general came
simultaneously with interference, allowing for the by-pass of the
fundamental principle of the United Nations Charter, the sovereign
equality of all States!”
Given the hypocritical pressure exerted
by imperialist regimes 7 and the cacophony of the toe-the-line corporate
media over cyclone-ravaged Myanmar, a statement by Charvin is
cautionary:
- "Humanitarianism as an alibi is the worst of all
perversions practiced today. It can be avoided only by protesting the
humanitarianism.
- "… With humanitarian interventionism without the
consent of the parties involved, humanitarian law, which to that point
had been universal, becomes a law of inequality."
Professor
Barbara Delacourt rues the militarization of humanitarianism. She
quotes Bush’s “we intervene in Iraq in order to make them respect 17 UN
resolutions.” This is astounding because of the US’s overt hypocrisy
vis-à-vis Israel, which is a far more flagrant violator of UN Security
Council resolutions and, yet, receives support and cover from the US.
Professor
Antoine Bernard, a specialist in international public law, says the
tools to tackle impunity are missing, as is the political will to
tackle impunity. He calls for a strengthening of the ICC and emphasizes
the importance of prosecuting anyone, including state or government
heads, which, according to Bernard, is permitted by Article 27 of the
Rome Statute.
Attorney Nuri Albala adds;
- “What is fundamental to
universal jurisdiction is the fact that all of humanity is victimized
by crimes against humanity, and hence that these crimes can be judged
anywhere.”
Lawyer Roland Weyl charges that the “United States
institutionalizes impunity” when it pressures other states to drop laws
on universal jurisdiction. He warns that unequally applied humanitarian
law may have anti-humanitarian effects; he reveals a secret clause of
the Rambouillet Agreements required privatization of the Serb economy,
something unconnected with human rights, which eventually served as a
pretext to destroy Serbia.
Canadian law professor Ann
Bartholomew claims that US violations of international law are designed
to “reconstitute the law itself.”
She sees overcoming the
bystander effect among citizens of empire as crucial, and deplores the
lack of outrage to known widespread violations of human rights and
humanitarian law. She argues “‘non-resistance’ to empire is a moral and
political failing.”
In the vein of Bartholomew, theoretical
physicist Jean Bricmont concludes, “In the absence of a genuine
international force, the only thing that could limit the impunity of
powerful states is the actions of their own citizens.”
Sociology
professor Pedro A. García-Bilbao warns, “The fact that crimes which are
classified as serious under international law are being committed is
cause for concern; but repeated impunity is even worse.” Repeated
impunity leads the transgressor to believe himself above the law.
Is
there hope is on the horizon? Ramsey Clark’s effort to move a case for
impeachment against Bush was put on the congressional agenda by
Democratic congressman Dennis Kucinich, who pledged to keep
reintroducing the measure until the House Judiciary Committee voted on
it. 8 But a Kucinich pledge is lightly regarded by many progressives who
remember well how he betrayed his progressive support base by endorsing
the pro-war presidential contender John Kerry. Thus it was no surprise
when Kucinich voted against his own measure (along with the Democrats),
dismaying his constituents. 9
In another recent happening, the US
Supreme Court ruled that rights of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay were
being violated by the government. 10 A distraught looking Bush disagreed
with the judgement but relented, “We’ll abide by the Court’s decision.”
Virginia
Sloan of Constitution Project President hailed it a tremendous victory
for the system of checks and balances. Michael Ratner of the Center for
Constitutional Rights said it was a critical decision and predicted
most of the detainees would be released for lack of evidence against
them.
Impunity is a book that a single book review cannot do
justice to (pun unintended). Clarity Press translated Impunity into
English, so its vital message could reach a wider audience. Undeniably,
impunity must be eliminated; otherwise the rulers of powerful states
can continue to wield lethal violence against the citizenry of weaker
states. Until such time as impunity is a relic of an uncivilized past,
the supreme international crime remains a possibility. One needs look
no farther than the current disinformation and belligerent rhetoric
directed at Iran. As long as impunity exists, Iran and other states
will feel threatened by a violent superpower.
As for whatever
agreement, SOFA or not, that the US signs with collaborationists in
Iraq, it does not matter as long as the resistance fights on. It is the
resistance that will dictate what is appropriate for Iraq and its
sovereignty. As long as the Iraqi resistance struggles for the Iraqi
people’s homeland, the nightmare of Vietnam syndrome manifests itself
to American militarists; the dream, however, is to end aggression — for
this to come about, ending impunity is necessary.
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