A Court for a New America

By ROGER COHEN
NYT

THE HAGUE

Of the many issues that have soured relations between Europe and the United States under the Bush administration, few have been as poisonous as America’s refusal to join the world’s first permanent war crimes court here. The snub has been seen as a symbol of U.S. contempt for the rule of law.

In one of his last acts as president, Bill Clinton signed the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court, but the signature never led to U.S. ratification. On the contrary, President Bush withdrew the signature.

This remarkable, and gleeful, “unsigning” was followed by an aggressive campaign to oblige countries to make a formal commitment, under threat of U.S. reprisals, never to surrender U.S. citizens to the court.

Tom DeLay, the former Republican House leader, caught the snarling Bush-Cheney view of the institution when he referred to a “kangaroo court” that was a “clear and present danger” to Americans fighting the war on terror.

(More here.)