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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 13, 2024

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My argument is simply that America's actions re: the ICC demonstrate once again that it has no interest in submitting itself to such a system

This implies that the ICC is such a system. This is, to put it mildly, in dispute.

To make my own position clear:

Either you believe in an international rules-based order or you don’t

I don't. I am deeply skeptical of the ICC and equivalent bodies. I think that they are talking shops which restrict national sovereignty in ways that are tendentious and illegitimate.

Issuing arrest warrants for the leaders of Israel would not only be unjustified, it would expose your organization’s hypocrisy and double standards. Your office has not issued arrest warrants for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei or any other Iranian official, Syrian President Bashar al Assad or any other Syrian official, or Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh or any other Hamas official. Nor have you issued an arrest warrant for the genocidal General Secretary of the People’s Republic of China, Xi Jinping, or any other Chinese official.

Sounds spot on to me.

However, the US currently attempts to portray itself as an impartial keeper of the rules based order, whilst making every attempt to bias the rules in its favour and ignoring any rules it doesn't like, as with the ICC.

I would prefer it if someone like Donald Trump simply said clearly that America's interests come first and if you don't like that you need to be strong enough to stand up for yourself, so that the rest of us can stop slobbering over decades old pieces of paper and get a grip. Alternatively, I would like the US to reign itself in: to be as scrupulous about the sovereignty of other countries as it is about its own.