A New Face for America?

The past eight years has seen the United States drop to the bottom of the list as far as many other countries are concerned – one more “gift” from the Bush-Cheney reign. But few have been as destructive as America’s refusal to join the world’s first permanent war crimes court at The Hague. That snub has become a symbol of U.S. contempt for the rule of law.

In one of his last acts as president, Roger Cohen writes in an Op-Ed piece for the NYT, Bill Clinton signed the founding treaty of the International Criminal Court, but the signature never led to U.S. ratification. On the contrary, President Bush withdrew the signature. Why doesn’t that surprise me? And that unbelievable “unsigning” was followed by an aggressive campaign to oblige countries to make a formal commitment, under threat of U.S. reprisals, never to surrender U.S. citizens to the court.

The effect of U.S. rejection of the court, combined with the trashing of habeas corpus at Guantanamo Bay, as been devastating. Allies from Canada to Germany that are court members have been dismayed by the U.S. dismissal of an institution they see doing evident good.

Other smaller nations from Latin America to Africa, browbeaten by the U.S. on the issue of the court, have looked elsewhere for lost military or financial support. The American idea, grounded in legal, has been undermined.

Obama recognizes and supports the I.C.C.’s efforts to investigate and prosecute those responsible for atrocities in Sudan. That is, according to Cohen, a good start and a good signal. To be sure, only by our aligning America again with international law can the damage inflicted on America’s image and appeal by the Bush administration be undone.

We have a long way to go to repair the damage done to our country’s world image by the Bush/Cheney regime, but this would be a start.