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Saturday 6 October 2018

“Dear Mr. Bolton. What are you so afraid of and what triggers your war against the ICC?? Open letter to US National Security Advisor John Bolton…

Dear Mr. Bolton,
There is little doubt that the United States is still the most powerful country in the World...

It is arguably still the largest economy in the World and its military force is second to none, with vast amounts well-equipped soldiers and with the help of the best and most sophisticated arms arsenal ever to win every battle in every situation and on every terrain. On top of that your country maintains the largest nuclear apparatus in the World, with enough strategical and tactical nuclear weapons to destroy our planet many, many times over.

I even believe that your ambitions stretch out to winning the battle for outer space within the coming decades. I have little doubt that you will fullfil these ambitions, when you put your country’s energy in it.

As you call it yourself: your country is the greatest country in the World and it stands on the forefront of civilization. The events enrolling after the Second World War made that your country has turned into the “policeman of the World”: a role that your country has played well. Sometimes reluctantly and sometimes overenthusiastic with your trademark gung ho attitude. But always as a reliable partner for your country’s allies in the Western World and in the Middle East.

Perhaps it is there – in your role as policeman of the World – that the trouble begins.

A policeman has special privileges, granted to him by the government and the law, that common citizens don’t have. He may carry weapons at all time and has a special permit when it comes to the usage of lethal force against civilians: where normal citizens have no right to kill other people, a policeman has that right when he has to maintain the law and when the situation requires this.

Looking at this, your country also have been granted those special privileges in global politics and in military operations, by its grateful allies after the Second World War: not so much de jure, but de facto. The rest of the World was looking for a sheriff and your country was willing to play that role. 

Your country is a permanent member of the security council and your military fleet is sailing across the oceans to maintain peace and quiet all over the globe. No country is really challenging your military might! Not even China, although they are making great progress in building up their military apparatus.

One of the finest expressions from the Marvel Spiderman Saga is: “With great power comes great responsibility!”.

This means in your case that the special privileges that your country enjoys lead to a special responsibility to use them wisely and to the benefit of the human race and the planet as a whole. Not just for your own purposes and benefit. In most situations the USA stuck to these principles and played a pivotal role in maintaining the peace indeed.

However, the distance between being the school’s sheriff and the school bully is remarkably thin. The only difference is that the school’s sheriff uses his force restrainedly and for the greater good, while the school bully uses force exuberantly and for his own good. But I know that you are very much aware of that, Mr. Bolton. And so is the rest of the world.

Although accidents can always happen, the school sheriff should be open about the necessity of his usage of force and – when things went wrong – he would be willing in the end to face the consequences when his usage of force was beyond legal boundaries, if such is decided by justice.

In this case “justice” is represented by either the United Nations security council or (since roughly twentyfive years) the International Criminal Court in The Hague, lying in The Netherlands. The ICC is not a vague ‘hobby’ from a few utopian countries, but an official, legal institute that is acknowledged by a substantial majority of the countries in the world (i.e. 124). That is an undeniable fact.

Countries that did not acknowledge the ICC or that withdrew their confirmation are a.o. China, India, Russia, some of the Arab states, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, Libya and… Israel and the United States. Your country, Mr. Bolton.

As a matter of fact, it is a tell-tale and worrisome signal that the largest and most powerful countries in the world did not acknowledge (or did, but in a later stage withdrew their acknowledgement) such an important institute as the ICC.

Most of these countries’ fear for the ICC is based upon the assumption that the ICC could be prone to politicized trials, spurred by the enemies and political adversaries of these countries. Perhaps they have a point. Isn’t that so, Mr. Bolton?

And people who state that the ICC is a warrant for virtually endless and extremely expensive trial cases definitely might have a point. The court is a very bureaucratic and relatively powerless institution that is rather based upon good intentions than on a proven trackrecord.

Nevertheless, it is quite remarkable and even worrisome that an international court that is considered to be “perfectly capable” of dealing with local African and former Yugoslavian ‘quarrels’ – which are harmless for the powers that be – is considered to be too politically biased to deal with f.i. Russian, Chinese or Israelian and American disputes. Yet, that is what such powerful countries, including the United States, claim.

There is a blatant double standard in this way of thinking, discriminating between those countries in power and the countries at the other end of the power scale, whom nobody really listens to. The powerful countries are seemingly out of bounds for the ICC, while the powerless countries aren’t. I am sure that you are aware of this, Mr. Bolton.

And where other countries simply deny that the ICC has the jurisdiction to deal with trials against their militaries and/or countrymen, the USA takes this to the next level. They did so with a series of laws and other countermeasures that hinder possible interference against their militaries by the ICC.  I believe that you are the main architect behind some of these laws, Mr. Bolton. Aren’t you? The most infamous of these laws is the American Service-Members’ Protection Act, jokingly called the The Hague Invasion Act. Although my country does not fear (yet) that this law might become reality, its aggressiveness is nevertheless worrisome.

Yet, that legislation was not enough for you, as the current chief for National Security Affairs for the United States. You recently held a speech in which you promised “doom and gloom” for every ICC official who dared to incriminate American soldiers and other officials for their role in the various American wars, battles and peace operations of the last decades.

I quote here your own words from The Guardian:

 “The United States will use any means necessary to protect our citizens and those of our allies from unjust prosecution by this illegitimate court,” Bolton said.

He said the Trump administration would “fight back” and impose sanctions – even seeking to criminally prosecute ICC officials – if the court formally proceeded with opening an investigation into alleged war crimes committed by US military and intelligence staff during the war in Afghanistan or pursued any investigation into Israel or other US allies.

Bolton vowed that the United States would retaliate by banning ICC judges and prosecutors from entering the US, imposing sanctions on any funds they had in the States and prosecuting them in the American court system.

 “If the court comes after us, Israel, or other US allies we will not sit quietly,” he said, also threatening to impose the same sanctions on any country that aided the investigation.

He condemned the inquiry into war crimes in Afghanistan as an “utterly unfounded, unjustifiable investigation” and the court as illegitimate.

“We will let the ICC die on its own. After all, for all intents and purposes, the ICC is already dead,” Bolton said.

He said the US would negotiate more binding, bilateral agreements to prohibit countries from surrendering Americans to the court in The Hague.

There is not a single unclear word in your speech here and if anybody still would expect that the policeman of the world would allow a serious investigation into its own warcrimes, then this message by you is a clear wake-up call to these eyes.

Yet, after your swollen statement, I would like say to you: “Hey Mr. Bolton, what are you so afraid of?! Are Abu Ghraib and the rendition flights with American prisoners-of-war to US-supported torture camps all over the globe still haunting you? Is the often excessive violence of the US airforce, navy and US ground troops against their adversaries and enemies still keeping you awake at night? Are you afraid that the American warcrimes might be exposed in the open, visible to the rest of the world?! Thus exposing that the US is not holier than the rest of the world?!

It better be!

If the United States really wants to behave itself as the policeman of the world and not as the school bully, it should make its troops object of scrutiny with regards to clean warfare! In every war there are bloody mistakes and acts of sheer violence, but the only way to deal with that is to expose such crimes and try to mitigate the damage done”

But that is not how you or President Donald Trump see things, Mr. Bolton…

America First has become the mantra of you and your “gang in the White House” and the American military apparatus is rather becoming your personal enforcer and hitman than the policeman for the world. Is that a worrisome development in these times of mounting tensions and aggression from countries like China, Russia, Saudi-Arabia and Iran, to name a few? You bet, it is!

The relatively powerless countries in Europe with their high moral standards, their naivety and their poorly equipped armies feel squeezed between the US, Russia and China: countries that they can’t really trust anymore and that are all much, much stronger than the European countries themselves. China, Russia, but also the USA with President Donald Trump at the helm, have their own agendas and their own ways of influencing politics and the national political climate in Europe.

On top of that, these EU countries have to deal with mounting political tensions in their own societies, with increasing tensions between left and right populists and the moderate parties at the other side, leading to a more poisonous political climate.

Yet, the silence of the rest of the Western world after your speech – which was almost like a declaration of war against the ICC on your behalf – was deafening. The whole Western world and especially the EU seemed to act as if your statement was just “a figment of their own imagination”, that had reached them in a bad dream.

“If we all do as if we did not hear it, we can deny that Bolton and Trump actually said it. And then it didn’t happen, did it?!!”.

With such friends and sponsors, the ICC is dead or at least in a deep coma! And that was exactly what you wanted to achieve with your speech, right?!

And while this European way of thinking is in fact quite pragmatic and perhaps even sensible as a policy, it reinforces for me personally the notion that your United States have indeed recently turned from the world’s policeman in the world’s schoolbully. This is the consequence of your aggressive politics, your crude president and your uncooperative foreign policies that seem to tear the Western world apart. I have serious doubts whether that is to the advantage of the USA in the long run or not.

The ICC, albeit not ideal and decisive yet for making the world a better and safer place, does not deserve your almost personal war – your vendetta – against its sheer existence, as it tries to do the good things and make the world safer and more balanced in power.

And it also deserves a much better defence than this lackluster reaction by the rest of the world. But such a defence is not likely to happen for the time being. And that is a real shame…

I am sure that I can’t convince you, Mr. Bolton, and I can’t make you change your convictions. You have God at your side and your country is the shining city on the hill. You think that America should come first and that the opinions and interests of other countries are subordinate to your own countries’ interests.

But, as my country’s – the host country for the ICC – politicians do not dare to say you in the open that your statement was an aggressive, blunt and utterly wrong statement, I want you to hear it from me. Because it was…

And I truly hope that the American administration will soon change for the better. As I don’t trust the Americans anymore at this moment. I even consider the United States to be an adversary of The Netherlands, rather than an ally, as long as your gang is occupying the White House.

Yours sincerely,


Ernst 

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