Monday, January 9, 2006

The US is above the law

Jordan approves two new security laws
One of the laws approved on Sunday shields US citizens from war crimes prosecution in the International Criminal Court, the state news agency Petra reports.
What is sad is that Jordan had little choice in the matter, as the US has threatened to stop any economic aid to countries who reject US citizen immunity.

The US thinks it can do whatever it wants in the world and suffer no consequences. Unfortunately, in real life, all actions have consequences (as the gops are seeing with the Abramoff affair.) The problem is that we all must suffer the consequences of the reckless actions of this administration, and some of those consequences are dead soldiers and civilians from both countries. Someone needs to be held accountable for these deaths.

What is a war crime, anyway? Every action committed by US troops in Iraq is technically a war crime, for this is an illegal war. Is that what we need immunity from? No, we need to be able to torture and mass murder and get away with it.

History is a biased thing. One nation's history book will contrast sharply with another's. George W. Bush will be ranked up there with the likes of some of the worst human rights violators in Arab history books, but you have to step outside of yourself to understand this. Every society has a different world view, and this concept is something that many Americans find difficult to grasp. We are NOT above the law. The law is what stands between us living together in relative peace and us slaughtering each other.

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