Here Comes the Judge?

Carol Platt Liebau | November 27, 2009 12:19 PM

Given Hillary Clinton's stated regret that the United States is not a signatory to the International Criminal Court, there is a real possibility that the Obama administration intends to allow American soldiers in Afghanistan to be tried in the in the Hague

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This is not only terribly wrong, it is gravely dangerous to US security. If America -- which has some of the world's strictest rules of engagement, and already punishes those who trangress them -- agrees to subject its soldiers to inherently selective international prosecution, no one could blame young people for declining to join the military. What's more, it allows a bunch of international judges effectively to define the permissible limits of the warfare conducted by Americans, and offers an opportunity for them to wield enormous (and unjustified) authority over our troops, our strategy and our defenses -- a clear violation of our sovereignty.

Soldiers' hands are already being tied enough -- and their ability to defend themselves constrained enough -- by the new, PC era in the Obama armed forces. Subjecting them to international jurisdiction would be the last straw.

Think of the irony: If this treaty went through, in Obamaland, terrorists who attack our country would be entitled to all the protections of American justice in our homeland; the brave men and women who defend us would be handed over to the tender mercies of the (often anti-American) international bureaucrats in the Hague. Outrageous.