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Technology has always found its greatest consumer in a nation's war and defense efforts. Since the last attempts at a "Star Wars" defense system, has technology changed considerably enough to make the latest Missile Defense initiatives more successful? Can such an application of science be successful? Is a militarized space inevitable, necessary or impossible?

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almarst2002 - 04:14pm Aug 28, 2002 EST (# 4002 of 4003)

Swapping Justice for US Exceptionalism http://www.somalilandnet.com/somaliland_news/somaliland/2002/may/10959.shtml

Jul 26 2002 (The Nation/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) -- By voting unanimously to exempt American peacekeepers from prosecution by the International Criminal Court for 12 months, the UN Security Council swapped justice for American exceptionalism.

This is a dangerous precedent

First the UN has made a serious blunder because it is not the mandate of the Security Council to interpret treaties that are negotiated somewhere else. But the Security Council has passed a resolution that bars the court from investigating or prosecuting members of UN-authorised missions for one year, subject to renewal. A d v e r t i s e m e n t --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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In effect the body has amended an international treaty ratified by nearly 80 countries. If you think UN peacekeepers are angels read on:

In September 1993, the world reacted with horror when pictures of how Italian and Belgian soldiers on a peacekeeping operation in Somalia treated the locals were shown.

Blue helmets put hoods on Somali heads

The blue helmets put hoods over Somali heads, then tied their legs and hands and left them in the scorching sun without food or water for God knows how long.

If the International Criminal Court had been there the so-called peacekeepers would have been charged.

Luckily, a clever lawyer said that the UN was not a signatory to the Geneva Convention on war crimes and the soldiers were tried in their respective countries with little coverage of the cases and few got to know about them.

There was also the case of two Belgian paratroopers - Privates Claude Baert and Kurt Coelus - who were caught on camera roasting a Somali youth over a flaming brazier. There were also reports that at a UN base in southern Somalia some Belgian troops locked a child in a metal container, in the blazing sun, after he was caught stealing food from the base. The child did not survive the ordeal.

This shows that peacekeeping operations can at times turn to be basis of war crimes and that is what the United States does not want its soldiers tried for - just in case they are caught in the wrong.

The US says it is determined to prevent any detention of Americans by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

It has even passed the American Servicemen's Protection Act (ASPA) that provides for the invasion of ICC centres to release detained US citizens.

For starters, the ICC is not a Kangaroo court but an institution that will hold perpetrators responsible for crimes against humanity and break the cycle of atrocity and revenge.

Over the years, we have seen temporary tribunals established to deal with the genocide in Rwanda and in former Yugoslavia, but the ICC would be permanent.

It represents an acid test of America's commitment to international and universal concepts of justice and human rights - its willingness to be bound by the rule it establishes for others.

America is, no doubt, an exceptional nation. It is rich and powerful and can impose on others standards and strictures it evades. But America should not only see justice and irreproachable rectitude in the mirror.

First it must agree to change its exceptionalism face, which now threatens to scupper both the court and, failing that, UN peacekeeping operations in future.

In the new world order, certain laws must guide wars and peacekeeping operations and America should do away with its age-old resistance, where the country does not want to see its troops being vulnerable to any foreigner's jurisdiction.

It is also the height of arrogance where the US polity thinks that its officials should not be charged of war crimes, genocide or serious

mazza9 - 04:30pm Aug 28, 2002 EST (# 4003 of 4003)
"Quae cum ita sunt" Caesar's Gallic Commentaries

Another pointless post to the Missile Defense forum. Haven't you heard? We're focusing on Martha Stewart's cranberry preserves, ENRON, and their effect on childhood reading disorders! We will have no logic or reason posted here!

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