Through countless wars the United States has amassed a long record of war crimes, from abuse and torture of prisoners to the bombing of civilians and the deliberate destruction of hydroelectric dams, sewage and water treatment facilities, factories, bridges, roads, schools, hospitals and dwellings. The United States has also facilitated Israel's war crimes, while at the same time obstructing efforts to bring Israeli war criminals to account.
Therefore there is nothing more brazenly hypocritical than the US having an ambassador at large for war crimes in the person of Stephen Rapp who has tried former Liberian president Charles Taylor at the Hague. Rapp's mandate is to drag before war crimes tribunals any leader who has failed to do Washington's bidding, as a warning against defying the United States while remaining silent on war crimes Washington's stooges have carried out. Ethiopian and Israeli war criminals are exempt from Rapp's scrutiny, as too are Americans who torture detainees, bomb civilians, and give the orders.
Rapp could only be a credible envoy for war crimes were he to focus first on the considerable crimes of his own country and its allies. Until then, the greatest contribution the US can make to eliminating war crimes is to stop committing them, or better yet, to stop making war.
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