International Courts: Rigged Justice

All forms of Nationalism are hideous, all ultimately lead to war and death on a massive scale. Nationalism creates its own ethic and justifies behaviours that otherwise would be viewed as immoral. Essentially as an '–ism', it represents a worldview, a philosophical system with its own metaphysic, epistemology and ethic. It's a religion and thus idolatrous.

The conviction of Serbian leader Radovan Karadzic is a great victory for the concept of International law and justice and yet many know that the process is rigged. I'm not suggesting Karadzic and his Republika Srpska compatriots are innocent and free from war guilt. On the contrary, however the system is rigged because in the end the only justice these courts can offer is might makes right.

This is why at the end of the day the only people that are captured and convicted are those declared pariahs by the US dominated West. The court does not exercise justice but instead is an arm of political enforcement, war by another means.

African dictators and warlords, possibly some Middle Eastern figures and of course defector Slav politicians who resisted the unification of Europe and NATO expansion in the 1990s are in the end the only figures that end up before such courts.

Srebrenica was a terrible crime. In 1995 I was based in Italy and played a logistical role in the response, the bombing of Serb forces in Bosnia. It was a transitional moment for me as I was forced as a new convert to wrestle with my indoctrinated nationalism. I saw that I had a choice, Zion or America. The choice was clear and I began to work to get myself out of the US forces as soon as possible.

While the Serbs of the breakaway Bosnian republic are hardly sympathetic figures, even then I knew there was something more going on. The crimes of the Croats and later the Albanians would be whitewashed because it did not fit the US narrative. No, US involvement in Yugoslavia was about the United States consolidating power while Moscow was on its knees. I was a stooge in helping the Empire expand its power. This was also the era in which the justifications for imperial expansion would shift and take on a new narrative in the media. The threat of Communism could no longer be appealed to. This was a new era of 'humanitarian' interventions, of course in several cases when those 'humanitarian' concerns didn't coincide with US strategic interests there was no concern, even when slaughter was taking place as in Rwanda just a year earlier.

Of course after 2001, terrorism would be the new casus belli, and just when we thought that lie had run its course we find it's been reinvigorated. The rise of ISIS has proven rather convenient and has ushered in a new phase in the endless war.

If Karadzic is guilty and worthy of long-term incarceration then a host of US allies are worthy of the same. Karadzic never personally killed anyone but he provided the ideological leadership and was a manager. Under that basis there are a host of US diplomatic and intelligence figures who have just as much (if not more) blood on their hands. The US meddled and actively participated in the Indonesian Genocide and certainly the many death squad operations throughout Latin America. The US collaborated with governments, trained them, armed them, directed them and then provided diplomatic cover. In some cases the American officials were all but hovering in the background giving the orders. We could go on for pages listing operations the US was directly involved in or cases where Latin American, African and Asian allies committed war crimes and yet due to US cover were never held to account.

If Karadzic is guilty then so are they.

How many governments has the US overthrown? How many coups has it instigated? How many mass-roundups and civil wars resulted from these operations?

If Karadzic is guilty then why aren't the leaders of something like Operation Phoenix held responsible? Well, it was war someone will argue. So was the Bosnian conflict and in the end if people are massacred and assassinated who gets to claim the moral high ground? If the US massacres operatives and civilians on the enemy side, it's okay... but if the Serbs do it, they are criminals.

Karadzic is certainly an evil man and now will spend what is left of his life in a jail cell but it is outrageous that the US and its many criminal allies not only go free but get to claim moral superiority. In the end International Justice is something of a joke, little more than a tool in arsenal of Western Imperialism.

As usual the American Right totally misinterprets the nature of these courts and the bureaucracies behind them. They fear internationalism and the loss of US sovereignty. They fear US involvement because it will lead to these courts reigning in the US. It won't happen. The US participates but it will never place itself under court jurisdiction. This is part of US 'Exceptionalism'... one aspect of which is that the United States gets to make the rules but doesn't have to abide by them.