US Lacks Votes for Immunity from War Crimes Court

Reuters ^ | 6/19/2004 | Evelyn Leopold

[Sergio]

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) and key U.N. Security Council members intensified their opposition to a U.S. draft resolution that would renew the exemption of American soldiers from international prosecution.

Consequently, the Bush administration on Friday still lacked the required nine votes to renew the measure that would give U.S. troops immunity from the new International Criminal Court. The previous resolution expires on June 30.

[Sergio]

Don't know if we can post from Reuters, therefore the excerpt and URL.

We are Waaaayyyy past time of ditching the UN. Keep our funds, send the diplomats to Belgium, and turn the building into public housing or an amusment park.

This kinda of stuff makes me so angry I can hardly put it into words.

Best Regards

Sergio

[muawiyah]

Didn't Congress already address the issue ~ doesn't matter what Kofi and his band of thugs are up to, any action by that court directed at any American anywhere will be considered an act of war ~ something to that effect.

Could get a bit dicey. We may end up having to toss some nukes over this one.

[Paleo Conservative]

Don't know if we can post from Reuters, therefore the excerpt and URL.

Reuters

the UN

[RWR8189]

Let's if they hold the line and pull all of our troops out of peacekeeping operations.

[John Valentine]

Unless such a resolution is passed, all our troops must be withdrawn from all UN peacekeeping ops immedieately.

We have to make clear that we will NEVER accept internatonal jurisdiction over our citizens, and most especailly over our fighters.

Also, in case there needs to be mention made of this, Kofi Annan needs to go. He has NO BUSINESS giving advice to the UN Security Council. The Security Council is HIS BOSS, not the other way around.

He should be politely and quietly standing outside the door, waiting for his instructions.

[boomop1]

Any little operation they have they can go it alone F em there is nothing they can do without us.

[GSlob]

"F em there is nothing they can do without us."
Do not F them (without a prophylactics) - who knows what you might end up with; just leave them to stew in their own juices, and always keep UPWIND from them. This is all.

[blanknoone]

I see this coming to a head as a good thing. Especially with President Bush in the WH. If Xlintoon or Sexy's boytoy were in the WH, I would worry about them selling out American interests in pursuit of a legacy or frog approval. But I hope this doesn't pass, we promptly pull out of all UN ops, and hopefully send our dues directly to Volcker to use for his corruption investigation.

[Natural Law]

Go ahead punk, make my day!

[meenie]

The dynamics of this are adding up to a crisis. We lack nine votes to get a waiver for our troops. Meanwhile we turn the administration of Iraq over to the administrator of the war crimes tribunal. While we are there under the UN admistration our troops are supervised by the same administration that can charge them and their superiors with war crimes. Does these moves make sense? Not in my book.

[Porterville]

Damn, I always wanted to be a part of a revolution... like a Tolstoy or Victor Hugo.... Viva the USA!!! Fight the power!!! Good thing we have all them nukes.

[Militiaman7]

[Zeroisanumber]

(shrug)So we circumvent the council by working out immunity on a case-by-case basis. Also, the mandate of the ICC calls for prosecution only when the government in question is "unable or unwilling" to prosecute themselves. It's likely that the problem will never come up.

[NeonKnight]

Let them try to arrest a US Marine...while he is in full combat dress. You think his buddies will stand around and just watch?

[MississippiMan]

We have to make clear that we will NEVER accept internatonal jurisdiction over our citizens, and most especailly over our fighters.

That's exactly what should've been made unmistakably clear on Day One, instead of jacking around with these idiotic one-year extensions.

MM

[Steel Wolf]

The problem is one of fundemental truth. That's why there can be no compromise.

The U.N. does not stand for the rule of law. It is a rag tag association of dictators, opportunists, and thugs. Our immunity from the tribunal is in large part because one can expect no justice to be delivered from that band of thieves.

We are perfectly willing and able to police ourselves. The fact that we are not going to submit to a council of foriegn cutthroats is set in stone.

[Defender2]

The solution to this is very simple. Evict the U.N. from U.S. Soil and have it Disbanded immediately since it is not an effective world body entity in keeping the peace anyway certainly as events over the years have shown. It has become a haven for socialist pushing agendas and has not promoted Freedom therefore it has become useless.

[NRA2BFree]

I can't post what I want to say, or I'd probably get banned. Hopefully, this will send a wake up call to that bunch of morons in our Congress so they will pull us out of the UN. Thank God this didn't happen under Clinton's watch, or God forbid, under Kerrys. Bush better not betray us now. He is a globalist so it does concern me.

[FreedomCalls]

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, -- That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies United States; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] United Nations is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States.

Nobody said it better than Thomas Jefferson in 1776. His words are as applicable today as they were then, perhaps more so. It's time for a new United Nations of free democratic nations only.

[go star go]

I want to see the UN arrest an American soldier. That'll be a death nail for them...