America...and especially Mr. Bush's America, is ambivalent when it comes to the law. John Bolton, his appointee? to the UN, has said that treaties that constrain American sovereignty in any way are not legally binding. But the same Mr. Bush said that Iraq's transgressions of international law were part of the reason to go to war. He pulled us out of the ICC (International Criminal Court) and the Kyoto Treaty. And at the same time, America backs global rules on trade, finance and international investments. On and on it goes...it's pick and choose the laws you like and ignore or bend the others.
Of course he learned from a master of law benders...When (1986) the World Court found America guilty of mining Nicaragua's harbors, Reagan told his advisors to tear up the treaty relating to that offense. When he was told that this required two years notice, he told them to tear up that part as well.
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