Eventually, There Will Be Another Nuremberg

The United States is considering requiring the submission of five years of social media history in order to apply for an Electronic System for Travel Authorization form, a de facto visa that many countries, including Canada, now require. There is no obvious reason to gather the vast quantities of data that would involve, in the current American context, other than to filter visitors for opposition to Trump.

Gathering five years of social media data for submission is an onerous task. It would take longer for me to gather that data than I would spend in the United States — but that’s largely because I have no intention of setting foot in that failed state again before they address the myriad crimes of their leaders.

To wit, the United States Navy attacked three more boats in the Eastern Pacific on Monday, killing at least 8 more people absent any plausible pretence of legal cover, bringing the death toll to at least 95 people in 25 sunk boats. This after widespread outrage over confirmation that the military leadership ordered a second strike on a boat early on in the campaign to kill survivors, in direct contravention of the country’s own Department of Defense’s Law of War Manual (emphasis mine):

5.9 PERSONS PLACED HORS DE COMBAT

Persons, including combatants, placed hors de combat may not be made the object of attack. Persons placed hors de combat include the following categories of persons, provided they abstain from any hostile act and do not attempt to escape:

• persons in the power of an adverse party;

• persons not yet in custody, who have surrendered;

• persons who have been rendered unconscious or otherwise incapacitated by wounds, sickness, or shipwreck; and

• persons parachuting from aircraft in distress.

If we accept the completely absurd premise that this is part of a “war” on drugs, these are war crimes covered under the Geneva Conventions. They are crimes against humanity. They are offences normally subject to prosecution under the International Criminal Court, of which the United States is not a signatory precisely so that, as a rogue state, they may retain the right to perform this type of immoral act.

For those who think the Democrats are substantially better on this than the red-hatted fascists currently in the White House, a reminder that even Nobel Peace Prize-winning former President Barack Obama refused to join the Rome Convention and make the United States a party to the International Criminal Court, to both his and his nation’s shame. This is an abjectly American problem, not strictly a Republican one.

If we accept the premise that it is a drug war, waged through military rather than legal means, then we should also look at this year’s most relevant precedent.

Former president of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte has been imprisoned in The Hague since March awaiting trial for the extrajudicial killing of alleged drug smugglers. Specifically, the International Criminal Court arrest warrant alleges murder, torture, and rape.

In 2019, toward the end of Duterte’s presidency, he formally withdrew the Philippines from the International Criminal Court, presumably in recognition of his own crimes after the Court launched an investigation into his actions.

Duterte, who in 2020 endorsed Donald Trump for re-election, has also inspired Trump in this way. Last week, the Trump administration threatened the International Criminal Court with sanctions — unless they committed to not prosecuting Donald Trump. Can you say mens rea?

The continued construction of concentration camps, execution of mass deportations, the creation of a Gestapo-type force under the auspices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and numerous other domestic crimes against humanity and democracy are outside of the reach of the ICC specifically because the United States is not a signatory. By attacking citizens of ICC member states in international waters, the administration and its actors have opened themselves to international liability that should not be taken lightly and should not be ignored.

Following World War II, Nazi war criminals were famously tried in the city of Nuremberg, Germany. Many were executed for their crimes.

The United States has a chance to redeem itself by offering up its leaders to the Hague, atoning for their widespread tolerance and support of a government clearly violating international law, and demonstrating on the world stage that randomly killing foreigners for fun and votes is not who Americans are — at least, any more.

The insanity has to end, and if they refuse to send their criminal leaders overseas for prosecution, or are finally willing to prosecute those domestic offences, who better to host it than the 415 residents of the small town of Nuremberg, Pennsylvania? They have a unique and profoundly symbolic opportunity to host the trials, to offer up a literal American Nuremberg to bring justice to those who have led the United States so far astray.

In the meantime, I will keep adding to my five year social media docket that the American Gestapo are so eager to review — and would thus be forced to read.