Republicans Step Up Campaign Against Global Court

January 3, 2001 5:05 PM

Republicans Step Up Campaign Against Global Court

Jesse Helms and co. against international war crimes court treaty.

Guess somebody's got some skeletons to hide.

Bush administration against it too.
posted by Mr. skullhead (7 comments total)

Might not be a skeleton but a signal of future intentions. I studied the ICC for a few Model UNs and represented the UK which was neat as I'm from the US. I think I remember that there might have been a problem if the US went off and started killing people (oops, I mean a "police action") without the UN's ok. Then the US could be brought up on charges in front of the court because the UN didn't sanction it. Kinda makes NATO obsolete, which could be another reason they're against it.

Funny though - Helms has toned his comments down a lot. He used to sound like Sadam talking about the West whenever he was talking about the UN.
posted by jwells at 5:46 PM on January 3, 2001

This is a natural response from a rogue state, what would you expect?
Did you check out their recent "election".
posted by lagado at 7:56 PM on January 3, 2001

lol lagado
posted by rushmc at 8:09 PM on January 3, 2001

At the risk of sounding morbid... oh what the hell.

When Jesse Helms dies, this is going to go through, right?

Some style of World Court for war crimes and other international issues is actually going to be set up, with something resembling an impartial judiciary, beholden to no one government (not even (gasp!) the USA); in other words, delivering on what it would claim to serve.

Are we evolved enough yet as a race to actually bring this about? Or do we need Helms (and it would seem the Bush administration, who might have something tangible to hide already and if they don't then I bet anyone a dollar that they soon will) to stop being an obstacle before this can be made to happen?

I don't mean to sound inflammatory. It's an honest question.
posted by chicobangs at 9:30 PM on January 3, 2001

I'm pretty sure there will always be a large number of people that believe the US should not be beholden to anyone other than the populace of the US, at least I hope so.
posted by Mick at 5:44 AM on January 4, 2001

chicobangs, you're assuming Jesse Helms is actually going to die -- at this point, I'm beginning to think he either might never kick the bucket, or did a long time ago and what we think is Jesse Helms is some sort of animatronic beastie. Or a lich?
posted by lia at 6:01 AM on January 4, 2001

I couldn't believe the arguments made by an American lawyer who is involved in the negotiations and read a blurb last night on NPR. He basically said the problem with the treaty as it stands right now is that US officials could be held accountable for the actions of our military, and assumed all his listeners would obviously agree that would be absurd.

I'd like to see someone in the Clinton administration (preferably Clinton himself) held accountable for bombing that factory in Sudan.
posted by straight at 9:11 AM on January 4, 2001