Birtherism has turned into a joke. Health care reform will send old people to death camps is getting stale. So what’s a right wing fanatic to do? I suspect — no make that I strongly suspect — that this will be next big brouhaha to arise from the Real Americans about how much Obama and the Democrats hate America: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s remarks in Kenya (you can see their little pinwheel hats spinning already at the mention of that country) that it is regrettable the US is not a member of the International Criminal Court — you know, the one that prosecutes people for war crimes:
NAIROBI, Kenya, August 6 — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday it was “a great regret” that the United States was not a member of the International Criminal Court, an institution that has long been treated warily by the Pentagon. […
Clinton said it was “a great regret but it is a fact” that the U.S. government was not a member of the court. “But we have supported the court and continue to do so.”
She added: “I think we could have worked out some of the challenges that are raised concerning our membership by our own government, but that has not yet come to pass.” […]
In December 2000, Clinton’s husband, then-President Bill Clinton, signed the treaty setting up the International Criminal Court, despite what he called “concerns about significant flaws.” But he did not submit it to Congress for ratification. Months later, the Bush administration in effect withdrew that signature. The Obama administration has not made any move to join the court.
The Pentagon has long worried that the international war crimes court could unfairly target American military personnel stationed around the globe. Some legal experts, however, say the U.S. government had won important concessions to ensure protection of American servicemen and servicewomen.
Here’s how the AP headlines the story, by the way:
Clinton suggests US could join war crimes court
A headline bound to stir up the right wing juices, doncha think? Of course, she said no such thing. She was simply giving a diplomatic response to the anger many in the international community feel that the US refused to join the Court, and then launched an illegal, aggressive war (i.e., committed a war crime) against Iraq which has resulted in the death and displacement of millions of people. Personally, I doubt this will happen on Obama’s watch or any other President’s either, but it would be nice if Dick Cheney and Dubya were wetting their collective pants about now considering the possibility of standing in the dock at The Hague on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, wouldn’t it?
