See this fist?
The Guardian report was posted before Bolton gave his speech; the Times reports the speech given.
The Trump administration threatened the International Criminal Court with sanctions if it pursued an investigation of American troops in Afghanistan, opening a harsh new attack on an old nemesis of many on the political right.
“The United States will use any means necessary to protect our citizens and those of our allies from unjust prosecution by this illegitimate court,” President Trump’s national security adviser, John R. Bolton, said in a speech on Monday in Washington.
“We will ban its judges and prosecutors from entering the United States,” Mr. Bolton said. “We will sanction their funds in the U.S. financial system, and, we will prosecute them in the U.S. criminal system. We will do the same for any company or state that assists in an I.C.C. investigation of Americans.”
In other words: Listen up, peasants: the United States is better than everyone else, and it is above the law. We can do whatever we want because we are the Colonial Power and you are the colonized. We have the biggest fist, and you can’t touch us. To sum up: we don’t give a rat’s ass about your stupid “international law” and your “treaties” and your “court.” If you don’t give us what we demand, we’ll just take it. In conclusion, fuck all of you.
Mr. Bolton’s hostile words, in what the White House has called his first major address as national security adviser, echoed the position he took as a senior official in the George W. Bush administration, when Mr. Bolton emerged as the most virulent foe of the court, which is based in The Hague.
The United States declined to join the court during Mr. Bush’s first term, when Mr. Bolton was an under secretary of state and later ambassador to the United Nations. After he left the Bush administration, the White House showed a little less resistance to the court’s work, even expressing support for its investigation of atrocities in Darfur.
Let’s keep this in mind when Trump makes us look back on Bush as not so bad.
Under President Barack Obama, the United States began helping the court in investigations and shifted to a policy of “positive engagement,” according to Harold Koh, then the State Department’s legal adviser.
Still, the United States never joined the court. And with Mr. Bolton back in power, the White House has swung back to the language of 2002 and 2003. In his speech, he made familiar arguments against the court, saying that it infringed on American sovereignty, had unchecked power, and was “ineffective, unaccountable, and indeed, outright dangerous.”
What about Germany’s sovereignty? Huh? Didn’t the Nürnberg trials infringe on Germany’s sovereignty? Why shouldn’t a country commit genocide if it feels like it and nobody can stop it? Not just any country, of course, but the US, and…no, just the US.
“The largely unspoken, but always central, aim of its most vigorous supporters was to constrain the United States,” Mr. Bolton said. “The objective was not limited to targeting individual U.S. service members, but rather America’s senior political leadership, and its relentless determination to keep our country secure.”
By “senior political leadership” he of course means “more firepower.” The idea that we have “senior political leadership” at this moment is a mix of laughable and emetic.
I think you’re misreading this. He’s contrasting “senior political leadership” to “individual U.S. service members”. In other words, he’s worried that the ICC would come after the likes of Bush and Cheney (and Bolton).
As it should.
Oh, yes, I think you’re right. Thanks.
Well, if I’m forced to choose between the US and international conventions that make me and the bulk of the worlds population safer and have better lives… Sorry US friends.
The USA has trashed:
UN (and most of it’s subsidiaries)
Paris Accord
WTO
ICC
And less importantly, but still of note:
G7/8/20
NATO
Feel free to add any I’ve missed. I haven’t included trade treaties, but also important.
The gods always punish hubris, Mr Bolton. I wonder if it has ever occurred to the US political elites that America could be subject to sanctions by an increasingly exasperated world community.
Rob,
Why do you assess NATO and G7/8/20 as less important? A revanchist Russia and a weakened NATO are an alarming combination.
RJW, The primary benefit of G&/8/20 is more the symbolic fact that these nations can meet to talk issues through at a head-of-state level. As far as I’ve been able to determine nothing much actually comes directly from that, but the symbolism is very important. NATO is an edge case. It is of course critical to have a strong and resolute NATO to ensure security for both Western Europe and North America. It could be argued that a NATO that was too strong might actually destabilise the region. Either way it is a regional factor with global effects.
Pretty much everything about Trump is alarming.
Pretty much? I’d be interested in hearing what things aren’t alarming. It might help me sleep better at night.
Rob,
The fact that the heads of government of the G20 can meet to discuss issues is far more than symbolic, it’s essential, particularly if other formal institutions are weakened by US imperialism. Soon it might be the G19.
Iknklast,
Trump is alarming, however the position of the US is precarious, he might be the catalyst for a precipitate US collapse, followed by a rapid retreat back to the Americas. Unlike Rome, modern empires dissolve very quickly.
How long can America continue to borrow to finance its war machine? Ask the mandarins of the Middle Kingdom. Trump has started an economic war with China that the US can’t win in the long term and the moron probably has no idea of the consequences.
Iknklast, there are a few non-alarming things. He’s filthy rich, but wears badly fitted suits. His tie is far too long. Those are mere fashion crimes. He’ll carry an umbrella all for himself and let his young son get wet in the rain. He is a multiple adulterer. That merely makes him a shitty person. He’s greedy enough to demand two scoops of ice cream and petty enough to want thousand island dressing when everyone else gets one scoop and plain dressing. That’s merely petty and greedy.
Then there’s the plus side. Ummmm….
Okay, so there’s no plus side. But, as I’ve demonstrated, there are some things that are not alarming about him.
On Trump’s plus side, his lack of intelligence makes him incapable of exploiting his evil nature.
Rob, personally I find the ice cream and umbrella business *highly* alarming. The fact that someone *that* petty, small-minded and greedy is in charge of America? Alarming as hell.
Rob, I have to agree with latsot. I find it extremely alarming that a parent would use an umbrella and not give the shelter to their own child. I find it even more alarming that this is a trait of the POTUS, because that speaks to a strain of extreme cruelty or obliviousness – or both – which are alarming in the individual with his finger on the button.
I find the ice cream business alarming, as well, because this is an individual who is the face of America, and is responsible, at least in part, for our international relations. It shows that he is narcissistic, greedy, and childish, none of which are good traits for the leader of the largest nuclear-powered country in the world, and a country with so much money and power that we are a major trading partner with many other nations, including many who have much less than we have already. He wants to grab all the goodies, and that is not good either for this country, or for the world as a whole.
As for being a multiple adulterer, I find that obnoxious, but none of my business. In this case, though, it comes as part of a package – a pussy-grabbing package – of contempt for women. Since more than half the citizens of the country are women, this is also alarming.