American Sovereignty Better Protected under Bush

President Bush attacked Kerry several times over two debates regarding Kerry’s support of the International Court of Justice, and Kerry never put a defense. The ICJ would enable foreign judges, accountable to nobody, to detain U.S. citizens, without U.S. consent, for any violation they deem under “international law.”

I believe that President Bush did a very smart thing to prevent our national sovereignty being usurped by non-sovereign entities that answer to nobody. His administration has so far signed pacts with 94 countries, bilateral agreements that would prevent these countries from turning over U.S. citizens to the court.

In 1993, Kerry was one of the eight co-sponsors of a resolution proposed by Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd, a Democrat. It was titled: "A joint resolution calling for the United States to support efforts of the United Nations to conclude an international agreement to establish an international criminal court." Dodd emphasized that the court should have authority to prosecute Americans: "We cannot push for the establishment of an international tribunal and pretend at the same time that we are exempt from its reach."

Basically, judges from human-rights abusing countries, such as Venezuela, Cambodia, Libya, Sudan, et al, do not have any checks to balance them out if they decide to pursue politically-motivated prosecutions. Bush saw that very clearly and unsigned the agreement that President Clinton signed which submitted America to the ICJ.

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