Say ‘no’ to Bush

IN AN earlier editorial we had pointed out that George Bush's totally unjustified and illegal invasion of Iraq was an obvious illustration why the United States administration wanted no part of the International Criminal Court. The American government, wielding the might of the world's only superpower and intent on having its way in the world, had placed itself and its country above the constraints of international law and justice.

As far as this newspaper is concerned, Bush and his warmongers in the White House and Pentagon should now be facing charges before the ICC for the atrocities they have committed against the Iraqi people who are still suffering from severe deprivation and dislocation following the total and violent destruction of their country more than two months ago. It is now clear that Bush's justification for the US invasion of Iraq, that its dictator Saddam Hussein posed an immiment threat to the US and the world by his stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, was nothing but a huge hoax. So that both he and British PM Blair should now be held accountable not only for the wholesale physical demolition of Iraq but also for the slaughter of thousands of innocent lives, largely women and children, who could not flee the prolonged and massive US-UK aerial bombardment.

As a result of the US rejection of the ICC, however, Bush and his right-wing war hawks can continue with impunity to fool the American people with their jingoistic rhetoric about scoring a magnificent victory against Saddam Hussein. Unbelievably, however, that outrage is not enough for Bush and his superpower brigade. The US Government has now decided to suspend US $47 million in military aid to 35 countries, including Trinidad and Tobago and several other Caribbean states, for their failure or refusal to give US citizens immunity from the tribunal. We are saddened to learn that some 51 nations have already buckled under this kind of US blackmail, but we expect that Trinidad and Tobago and other Caricom states, firmly subscribing to the paramountcy of international law, will be categorical in their refusal to concede to US demands. Certainly TT, with special connections to the ICC, must say a firm no.

Regardless of their country's power, Bush and members of his ultra-conservative regime must not be allowed to capriciously dismiss the demands of international law and justice upon which peace and order and the maintenance of a civilised world depend. Nor should they be encouraged in the arrogant idea that their military and economic might entitles them to exercise some kind of hegemony over our planet. Moreover, we consider the excuse which the US has given for rejecting the ICC as not only overbearingly specious but also a grevious insult to the world community, the United Nations, the 90 countries which studied, signed and ratified the treaty setting up the Court. The American government's fear is that the ICC could become a forum for politically motivated prosecutions of US citizens. It may well be that this fear reflects the lack of confidence among American leaders of their own system of justice which history would show has been riddled with bias and prejudice.

In any case, it is a brazen insult to the carefully devised mechanism, processes and regulations of the Court and the distinguished jurists selected from different countries — TT's Karl Hudson Phillips QC is one of them — to preside over trials of the court. To presume that this company of eminent legal personages would stoop to engage in "politically motivated prosecutions against American citizens" reveals either a dangerous kind of paranoia or a determination to use force unilaterally, in pursuit of self interest and with total impunity. As we said before, the invasion of Iraq is a case in point. We must tell Bush and his warmongers an unequivocal no.