Townhall.com is reporting today that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, speaking in Kenya, says it is a "great regret" that the United States is not a member of the International Criminal Court.
The purpose of the court is to try people for genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity when national courts are unwilling to do so. The U. S. refused to sign on to the Court in 2002, fearing that soldiers looking for terrorists would be subject to prosecution because of international politics.
In deciding whether or not to join the International Criminal Court, we need to look at what the United Nations has become. The United Nations began with the idea of peace and justice throughout the world. It has become a place where brutal dictators head the human rights committee. If the Court were run by countries with democratic governments, it would probably work, as the trials after World War II worked. The Allied Forces after World War II were (with the exception of Russia) democratic governments. They ran fair, non-political trials and dispensed justice. There are too few powerful democracies in the world today to ensure that would be the case. Consider that Israel has repeatedly been condemned by the UN, while Islamic suicide bombers are not even criticized!
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