The Arch and the Hague

Archbishop Desmond Tutu, fondly known in South Africa as "The Arch," recently called for George W. Bush and Tony Blair to be sent to the International Criminal Court for their war in Iraq. Citing that more than 110,000 Iraqis have died in the conflict, more than 4,500 US soldiers killed and 32,000 wounded, he lambasted the immorality of the war against WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction) which never appeared. Tutu even pulled out of a conference in protest here in Johannesburg last week because Blair was going.

The Arch, thefamouspeople.com

Tutu has had a long history of defending human rights, earning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 and chairing the Truth & Reconciliation Commission to hear apartheid-era crimes. In general, he is quite a boss, and overall an incredible man. He even made an "it gets better" video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95c5HRYanlo

Random Kate Thoughts: The funny thing about the Hague (the ICC) is that the only people to ever be indicted have all been Africans. So is it really this ultimate pillar of justice? Is the West implicitly (or explicitly?) saying that Africans do not have sufficient systems of justice to try their own criminals? There was a lot of protest about this aspect of the Hague back when the perpetrators of Kenya's 2008 post-election violence were being sent there last year. Why just us? Africans asked. America is too good to have its criminals sent to the Hague? As Americans, we do tend to think that our justice system is pretty dang good. Obviously we should not try a westerner just to have done so, but hopefully we can all work to creating better justice systems in Africa and not be afraid to make America susceptible to international law. It's only fair.

Final thought, though in as much as The Arch has a point, the moral grounds argument doesn't have a ton of legal sway. Until 2017 when the ICC is allowed to indict on counts of "crimes of aggression," we'll just have to wait and see.