Republicans and the world

"I wouldn't join the International Criminal Court. It's a body based in The Hague where unaccountable judges and prosecutors can pull our troops or diplomats up for trial.

"And I wouldn't join it. And I understand that in certain capitals around the world that that wasn't a popular move. But it's the right move not to join a foreign court that could -- where our people could be prosecuted." - George W. Bush 09/30/04

This article from late November is a reminder of the hostility of today's Republican Party to international law in general and to the Internnationl Criminal Court (ICC) in particular.

Congress Seeks to Curb International Court by Colum Lynch Washington Post 11/26/04.

The Republican-controlled Congress has stepped up its campaign to curtail the power of the International Criminal Court, threatening to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in economic aid to governments that refuse to sign immunity accords shielding U.S. personnel from being surrendered to the tribunal.

The move marks an escalation in U.S. efforts to ensure that the first world criminal court can never judge American citizens for crimes committed overseas. More than two years ago, Congress passed the American Servicemembers' Protection Act, which cut millions of dollars in military assistance to many countries that would not sign the Article 98 agreements, as they are known, that vow not to transfer to the court U.S. nationals accused of committing war crimes abroad. ...

The criminal court was established by treaty at a 1998 conference in Rome to prosecute perpetrators of the most serious crimes, including genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The treaty has been signed by 139 countries and ratified by 97. Prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo of Argentina has begun investigating widespread human rights violations in Congo and Uganda. [my emphasis]

It's not just that the Bush administration and the Republican Congress oppose US participation in the ICC.  They are also trying to sabotage its operations and discredit it as much as possible.

But given the Bush Doctrine of preventive war and the now well-known practice of torture in the gulag, their concern over prosecution of Americans by the ICC is by no means entirely irrational.  Their opposition to the court is bad policy for the US.  But their fear of it is certainly not entirely without reason, given Republican Values in foreign policy and war.