"we don't accept a World Court to prosecute us, but we expect you little countries to agree to it"
We have a justice system and apply the UCMJ to our troops. If no outside force had stepped in, no NAZI and no Serb war crimes would have gotten prosecuted by anyone. To some degree you're right. Many of these countries are not ruled by laws but regimes or a sort of "mob rule". In those cases a court like the Hague is very well suited to do what these nations are not willing to do on their own, apply some resemblance of law where there is none.
In Iraq today, some Sunni surly also thinks Iraq's courts are a kangaroo justice system. But just like our nationalistic thinking Serbs in this forum, they are blinded by their own personal convictions. Saddam and many others are war criminals. They are war criminals by international law.
http://www.un.org/law
In the US DoD the service member is is subjected to a code of justice that by far exceeds any international court system. The Hague will never sentence someone to death, which is possible under the UCMJ. The DoD investigates itself internally and prosecutes people for crimes even though they could easily have covered things up.
Example: The case of CPT Maynulet at Wiesbaden Germany in 2005. The DoD could have easily kept a lid on this, but it was a service member (Chief Warrant Officer) who turned the CPT in after review of a drone tape. The initial evidence was a drone tape which only the DoD had in its possession (No one knew). However, CID immediately initiated an investigation and began to dig deeper into the issue. The command immediately went public with the information. They eventually built a case against him and today he is a convicted felon, FBI registered. The behavior of the DoD is in stark contrast to many here who attempt to "rationalize" or through "polemics" attempt to wish away behavior that is illegal and immoral.
There is no doubt that a nation like Great Britain, Germany or the US will go after their own service members if they do wrong. There are numerous such cases from Afghanistan, Iraq, Balkans, Somalia....etc. The Canadian para unit in another example, and several service members got in some very hot water for some of the actions in Somalia. But they policed themselves. However, Serbia was not going to police itself. So yes, there is a double standard. So what?
>>>>>>>However, Serbia was not going to police itself. So yes, there is a double standard. So what?<<<<<<
Even under Milosevic officers and soldiers who commited crimes in Kosovo were prosecuted and convicted. You have no clue.
However, the same can not be said of USAF pilot who deliberately striked passenger train.
or pilot who deliberately dropped cluster bombs on a busy market place.
"If no outside force had stepped in, no NAZI and no Serb war crimes would have gotten prosecuted by anyone"Once again, you are equating the Serbs with the Nazis -- just as the PR whores that the Croats, Bosnian Muslims and Kosovo Albanians hired said very specifically was their "accomplishment". There were no "ovens" in Bosnia, there were no "rape camps" in Bosnia, there was a civil war between those who wanted to leave Yugoslavia (Bosnian Muslims) in Bosnia and those who wished to stay in Yugoslavia -- primarily Serbs, but also Naser Oric's followers --Oric was the most popularly elected Muslim in Bosnia at the time. There were war crimes on all sides, but the Serbs were the only ones to admit that they weren't angels. The ICTY has prosecuted primarily Serbs and only a few token Muslims and Croats, in spite of the fact that there is even video of the beheadins of Serbs!
No one here is "a joke", Red. If you want to salivate over the prosecution of "Serbs as Nazis" and "Bosnian Muslims as Jews" just like some Ruder-Finn trained Pavlovian dog, then that's your choice-- meanwhile, Serbs are no threat to us Americans and the very Bosnian (& Albanian) Muslims who we helped are now al Qaeda sponsors. The Bosnian and Albanian Muslims were never "the Jews", and the worst of them were and are a blood-thristy bunch of Islamic jihadists bent on taking, not only Serbs heads, but yours and mine, as well.
Listening to you and your ilk go on about the prosecution of "the big bad Serbs" and what they did to " the poor Bosnian & Kosovo Muslims" is like listening to Nero fiddle while Rome burned.