Posted on 07/02/2002 12:18:35 PM PDT by WakeUpChristian
Bush Still Opposed to Int'l Court
Tue Jul 2, 2:54 PM ET
By RON FOURNIER, AP White House Correspondent
MILWAUKEE (AP) - President Bush ( news - web sites) vowed Tuesday to keep looking for a way to resolve a dispute with U.S. allies over the world's first permanent war crimes court.
But Bush said he would not drop his opposition to the International Criminal Court.
"We'll try to work out the impasse, but the one thing we're not going to do is sign on," Bush said during a tour of a local church to promote his domestic agenda.
The administration is seeking blanket immunity from the U.N. Security Council for Americans serving in U.N.-approved peacekeeping missions.
As the tribunal was launched on Monday, the United States withdrew three U.S. military observers serving with the United Nations ( news - web sites) in East Timor ( news - web sites). But U.S. diplomats assured Europeans that the United States would not pull American peacekeepers out of Bosnia.
"Our commitment to the Bosnia mission is very strong, our desire to see this worked out in the context of the United Nations is very strong," the State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said in Washington.
And the Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld said the United States would not abandon current peacekeeping operations while striving to get Americans exempted from the court's jurisdiction.
More than 100 countries celebrated the birth Monday of the International Criminal Court as a milestone for global justice and vowed not to let U.S. opposition sabotage the tribunal's mission to deter and prosecute war criminals.
The Bush administration maintains that the court would put U.S. soldiers and civilians at risk of prosecution under laws that are outside America's control, calling the court a potential violation of U.S. sovereignty.
"As the United States works to bring peace around the world our diplomats and/or soldiers can be drug into the court. That's very troubling," Bush said.
His spokesman, Ari Fleischer ( news - web sites), said aboard Air Force One that other U.S. allies have negotiated immunity for their soldiers and civilians under the court — something the United States can't do because it doesn't belong to the group.
Fleischer said it was unclear whether the United States would be able to break the logjam with its allies.
Though the dispute is jeopardizing U.S. participation in the Bosnian peacekeeping mission, Fleischer said, "The president thinks it is a vital matter of principle to protect American men and women peacekeepers ... the United States has a lot at risk."
Fleischer said it is "absolutely not" Bush's intention to use the dispute as an excuse to pull out of the peacekeeping mission.
MR BUSH you said "you are with us are you are against us" Assad says Syria will continue backing Hezbollah
He is against us
So glad President Bush is telling the UN to stick it where the sun 'don't' shine! (Well...lol...my words but you catch my drift, I'm sure!) Way to go President Bush!!! (McVainiacs will hate this-hehe)
Can't help noticing, too, how much that photo makes this guy look like Hitler.
I'll admit that there is a dime's worth of difference. But we need about $100 worth of difference, and in far too many cases Bush is coming up short.
That doesn't mean I'm not grateful for occasional victories like this one for our side.
Seattle, Washington?
Will they drop trying?
Somehow, I doubt it. So how will they couch it in the future?
if he WELL AWARE of it .why has he not none something about it?
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