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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