Hold up. The US is not “facing war crimes charges in international courts.” That’s a very dangerous mischaracterization of what’s actually happening, and you can’t just type things like that.
A year ago, Bensouda made some noise and said her administration at ICC wanted to investigate Afghanistan. (They’ve been looking at it informally for eleven years. They’ve been investigating Darfur since 2005; how’s that going?) Now, she has made more noise and requested formal authorization to investigate. She doesn’t have it yet. This seems like a pedantic point but is actually extremely important, otherwise we could say President Trump is facing obstruction of justice charges. He isn’t. They’re looking for them, and they don’t exist yet. Big difference.
It’s certainly possible, though I consider it extremely unlikely given the political situation and resources of ICC, that charges will surface in the future. That said, ICC does not charge nations. It charges individuals. Long ago, we had our own debate on this under Gonzales regarding the applicability of the Geneva Conventions to unlawful combatants, which is how multiple administrations (and nations) have considered detained terrorists. The Hague is late to the party.
Worth noting that Bensouda is looking to investigate the “Situation in Afghanistan” (that’s a quote) as a whole, lumped us in with the Taliban and Afghani forces, and hedged our alleged crimes to 2003-2004, a courtesy she did not extend to other parties. I think it’s safe to say we all know what that’s about.
The ICC deal with matters under the following conditions:
1) The state is a party to the Rome Statute; or
2) Referral by the UN security counsel; and
3) The internal judicial processes of the state cannot deal with the apparent crimes
A year ago, Bensouda made some noise and said her administration at ICC wanted to investigate Afghanistan. (They’ve been looking at it informally for eleven years. They’ve been investigating Darfur since 2005; how’s that going?) Now, she has made more noise and requested formal authorization to investigate. She doesn’t have it yet. This seems like a pedantic point but is actually extremely important, otherwise we could say President Trump is facing obstruction of justice charges. He isn’t. They’re looking for them, and they don’t exist yet. Big difference.
https://www.icc-cpi.int/Pages/item.aspx?name=171120-otp-stat...
It’s certainly possible, though I consider it extremely unlikely given the political situation and resources of ICC, that charges will surface in the future. That said, ICC does not charge nations. It charges individuals. Long ago, we had our own debate on this under Gonzales regarding the applicability of the Geneva Conventions to unlawful combatants, which is how multiple administrations (and nations) have considered detained terrorists. The Hague is late to the party.
Worth noting that Bensouda is looking to investigate the “Situation in Afghanistan” (that’s a quote) as a whole, lumped us in with the Taliban and Afghani forces, and hedged our alleged crimes to 2003-2004, a courtesy she did not extend to other parties. I think it’s safe to say we all know what that’s about.