Just thought I’d pipe in a few comments to some of the various trains of thought chugging around my head since I started posting at the SDMB a few months back.
Because of this ICC thing, people have been talking a lot about the peace effort in Bosnia around here, and stated that without the support of the rest of the world, such effort would be impossible by the EU. With all due respect, that’s bull. We could do it easily with the support of only a couple of other nations on the Balkans, like Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro (which we have). Honestly, we could do it without their support, too, but we probably wouldn’t, as it would involve too much EU money, which we need badly for our so-called lumbering subsidy system. Canada’s support would also be nice, and fortunately, we have that too. Aside from them, who else is going to help us? Mexico? Yeah, they’re great in a peace effort. The only thing the rest of America could do would be to frown thoughtfully at us (which they will), but they don’t have the will to not help us. They need our money too much to piss us off too badly (who do you think funds the War on Terrorism, and all those development programs in Central America?)
Then there has been a lot of talk about other nations incarcerating and trying EU citizens against ICJ rulings. And I was wondering if we could use the Rome Treaty as legal grounds to forcefully protest in the UN to get them out? While I highly doubt this would be necessary (I think that pressure applied in the right locations will be enough to get back any citizens from those nations likely to hold him and that have ratified the ICJ jurisdiction). All that being said, if it came down to that, I would certainly be willing to slam some shoes on tables at the General Assembly. It’s a matter of asserting our sovereignty, and protecting our people. If your country were to become a police state, and a loved one were arrested for, say, practicing a forbidden religion, or criticizing the government, and you had the guts to peacefully resist, would you? I sure would.
Thirdly, a lot of people seem to be mistakenly assuming that the only people likely to hold EU citizens for crimes committed on their territory, against an ICJ ruling would be third-world dictatorships that aren’t likely to care about the ICJ anyway. I don’t think this is the case. I think we’re just as likely to see Australia or the US ignore the ICJ and take legal action against one of our citizens that had committed a crime on their territory as anyone. The US in particular legitimately despises the EU (this isn’t to say every US citizen does, but the government and the intelligentsia certainly do). Given a chance to knock us down a peg or two, they’d gladly step up to the plate.
When I think about it these might be offensive opinions to some, but I should ask you to not take that as grounds to beat me with a flame stick. It would be unfortunate if people would choose to attack me, rather than simply attack my argument, but if that’s the kind of game we play here, I can dig it.
Hmm, so much left to say… where shall I start? I guess I’ll go in my favorite order, “No Particular”:
Necessity of US support in the peace effort in Bosnia:
Yeah! Let’s get back to that. I’m not sure if the EU can keep the Bosnians at peace single handedly, but I would guess that we could do it reasonably well with the help of a few key partners, or we could do it entirely alone, but would probably not, because of the costs involved. Does anybody really not believe that if we pooled all our resources, we could force Bosnia into peace, even without help? C’mon, our military, police and medical care power is an order of magnitude or two beyond theirs. It would be messy, but we could do it, especially given all the anti-war sentiment in Bosnia these days.
General anti-US sentiment:
I’m not a big fan of the US. I don’t mind Americans, but America in general, bugs me. They perceive Europeans as peace loving, aloof, socialist intellectuals and cultural snobs who have no regard for anyone other than themselves. The Americans are largely reactionary conservatives, let-wild-dogs-run-jingoists and egomaniacs in general. They constantly let individual freedom get in the way of the common good, and frown upon those who don’t. They have an innate love of tyrants like Pinochet and Sharon, while painting Chirac as a bomb tooting, snail eating, garlic mouthed, cultural bully. Many parts of the US are blatantly anti-Muslim. When the Israeli Defense Force bulldozes houses on the Gaza strip, the American press calls it “policing”. When the Palestinian Authority tries to legitimately arm themselves for defense against the same actions they call it “arms smuggling”. Most Americans believe that the EU and the UN are jointly forming a Cabal with the aim for world domination, for crying out loud. The only part of the US that ever really supports us consistently is Costa Rica, which is why they escape the brunt of my ire.
Now, most of the above might seem a little jumbled, but I figured I would at long last share this with you all. I’ve tried to keep it civil here, so please, don’t start calling me an idiot and condescendingly suggest that I might need to watch a little CNN or read more of what some people seem to think is the brilliance that permeates this message board. I have better things to do with my time than be insulted.
Sparc
As a French-American, I’m typically hyper-sensitive to criticisms of France, but this one leaves me baffled. Care to elaborate?