Paul Muite Quotes

The minister had refused to be pressured by the George W. Bush Administration to sign an agreement with the US agreeing never to turn over an American or a foreign national working for America to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Even if a Peruvian or other non-American were working for an American Agency as an informant, agent, or other role, the country could not respect the treaty obligations that they had already made with regard to the ICC. Peru was “punished” losing $4 million aid. Nations were so “punished” while the State Department was spending huge sums to remedy negative opinion that so many nations had developed for the US during the George W. Bush administration. See {585493},65901 & {585496}, for more quotations on this. The US did not join the ICC Treaty as in some countries political considerations and different ethical values have labeled some American legitimate behavior as criminal and have attempted to hold individuals responsible for carrying out lawful orders. So many foreigners could understand the United States not wanting to deny Americans and others in the United States the protection of the United States Constitution, there was ire at the US pressuring others to boycott the ICC and break their existing treaties.

The Constitution was not drafted until 1787 and was ratified later. In the interim the young United States functioned under the Articles of Confederation, in a sense, our first Constitution. This clause established that the Federal Government should have the exclusive power and authority to conduct foreign affairs.

Dulles lied to Congress. The CIA at the time was supplying planes and American pilots in support of an anti-Sukarno Government faction that was in armed revolt. It is not clear whether or not Dulles knew the truth when he had so testified.

Hoover and most Republicans were generally opposed to sanctions and an instrument of foreign policy. 25 years after his presidency, the Republican Party started embracing sanctions as a tool of foreign policy and by the end of the 20th century, Republicans were sanction hawks. This quotation illustrates how American political parties and their philosophies change over time.

Misha Saakashvili, the President of Georgia, the ex-Soviet State, had a good bit of support in American political circles and decided to start a military conflict with Russia attacking a disputed area whose people had rejected Georgia and preferred the Russian affiliation and control. He was confident that the US would protect him from major retaliation. The Russians first moved troops into the attacked area and then started attacking Georgia military assets. Rice and the Russian Foreign minister were negotiating a cease fire on which they agreed to details and were going to impose them on Georgia. However, Lavrov demanded that Georgia President Saakashvili be deposed. Either nation had the power to do this, and both had in many past instances deposed or overthrown the leaders of other nations—democratically elected or not. This quote is very interesting because in this particular case the United States was stating its idealistic policy and not its “real-politic: that it exhibited in helping to bring down and depose democratically elected in Iran, Chile, Vietnam, Venezuela, Haiti, and others. Ironically, there were many in the US who wanted Saakashvili deposed for unilaterally starting a military conflict Russia that had to involve the U. S.

Individual countries are bound only by the treaties and compacts that they have signed and ratified. So very often someone will allege that a country has violated international law, but that nation may not have signed the Treaty or Compact that binds them, so thy may not be in violation at all whereas some other country in similar circumstances would be. Also, many countries (including the United States) sign treaties but take exception to some of the provisions. Then there are not bound by that provision. This is what makes International Law so complicated and difficult to understand.

This is a statement that was meant as a criticism but would be interpreted by many Americans as just a straight forward description. Many believe that is the way it should be.

The United States Senate must ratify all treaties before they can become effective. The Senate has been very reluctant to ratify treaties where the U. S. government or any of its citizens could come under the jurisdiction of any legal entity which did not abide by all the rights citizens are guaranteed by the U. S. Constitution. As a result, we do not recognize the World Court and the Treaty of Rome for example. The latter is the one that gives the World Court jurisdiction over a high level official who commits war crimes even in his own country. The result is that many dictators who do not want to be constrained by international law, do not sign the treaty fending off any pressure to do so by pointing to the United States. But Rothkopf and others who agree with him have not yet been able to come up with a mechanism that will assure American Constitutional rights to Americans who might be involved with the World Court and allow the court to punish the dictators who abuse their own population. The French would like their laws and constitution to control. The Russians, theirs. The Chinese, theirs. Every American public official takes an oath to defend The Constitution. That is their primary duty. Foreign policy and punishing international war criminals must take a lower priority.

There have been times in democracies where a foreign ministry (State Department) is isolated from the elected politicians and implements a foreign policy that is at odds with the wishes of the elected officials and the majority of the nation. A good American example of this was in 1948 where America had to decide whether to support the creation of the State of Israel in the United Nations and through diplomatic recognition. The professional diplomats in the State Department had developed very close relations with Arab States, and many State Department employees were anti-Semitic. In addition, they thought the most important thing for America was not to risk the Arab oil supply. Meanwhile, the people, Congress, and President Truman were on the other side and Truman had to finally order The Secretary of State to stop his professional diplomats from pursuing their own foreign policy preferences. Even then some did not.

England in this quotation claims the right to interfere in the internal affairs of another nation if there is mismanagement or crises AND her national interests are affected.

The “proofs” were diplomatic assurances—treaties—that England would guarantee the territorial integrity of Belgium. The British made strong diplomatic efforts to persuade Germany not to occupy Belgium. The German’s none the less send armies in under the excuse that if they did not, the French would occupy the country and have a strategic advantage over them. Diplomacy could do no more good. England had to send troops or renege on its obligations. So England was in WWI.

There is no court structure that handles International law disputes. There are some international bodies that hear some types of international law disputes, but no general mechanism. The procedures of these few bodies are very complex and arcane. But worse, there is no body with any power that can enforce any decision that may be reached. Enforcement depends on the good will of the nations involved or the pressure that can be brought to bear by other counties.