The goal is to try to set precedents so that eventually it is taken seriously and isn’t a joke. Hopefully some day it will apply to people like Kissinger.
Fair enough. Operating difference is Ukraine is coöperating with the ICC. Afghanistan didn’t in 2017, a reason the ICC cited for rejecting prosecution.
The Taliban could have petitioned to have the case reöpened. But for obvious reasons, they, too, weren’t interested.
(Context: Ukraine ratified. Iraq never did. Afghanistan did under U.S. occupation in 2003.)
The warrants were never about "the evacuation of orphan children from the war zone". You knew that already. And I think you know also that no one here believes or is otherwise mollified by the Kremlin's soothing catchphrases, or any of the other obfuscations it attempts to present to the world as a cover for what it has done.
The U.S. is the most powerful nation in the world. We have an unprecedented capacity to destroy organized state power. It is naive to think that the first steps toward international accountability for world leaders would feasibly start with or initially include the U.S.
It's naive to think it's steps in that direction at all. The steps needed would include the whole world putting economic sanctions on the US and stopping them only when the US gives up all its war criminals just like Serbia did.
It is a step in the right direction because we are talking about it. The idea of a world leader being accountable for evil acts it now no longer as absurd as it was in 1900. Hopefully, soon, more and more people will wonder why U.S. leaders aren't similarly held accountable. It will be a good thing when that happens.
<sigh/> How large a military force do the ICC and "Human rights campaigners" have standing ready to defend Mongolia, if Russia and/or China took exception to Putin's arrest?
Mongolia had options that do not involve Putin ever setting foot on their soil. This is a diplomatic failure that will be scrutinized justly, no matter how people feel about the ICC.
Because the alternative is hosting a war criminal on your soil? Mongolia has control over their own airspace and diplomatic relations, there are ways to avoid arresting Putin without making the ICC or NATO angry.
