On its face, the question about whether Sen. Bernie Sanders, the standard-bearer of the Democratic Party’s progressive wing, would subject American soldiers and intelligence officers to war crimes tribunals for their actions in Afghanistan or Iraq may seem unfair and polemical. Unfortunately, it is not, given the recent decision by the International Criminal Court to investigate war crimes in Afghanistan, involving not only Taliban crimes against civilians, but also alleged Afghan army and U.S. crimes conducted in the country.
The United States has long refused to join the ICC for fear that its judges might hijack the institution to pursue an anti-American agenda or to cloak themselves in the mantle of international legitimacy to wage their political crusades. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo voiced as much when he responded to the news with a statement declaring, “This is a truly breathtaking action by an unaccountable political institution, masquerading as a legal body.”
The Trump administration will, of course, not cooperate with the ICC. And in all likelihood, a Joe Biden administration would not either. While traditional Democrats view the United Nations and international organizations more kindly and seek reasons to cooperate with them, they generally are not willing to abandon American sovereignty to the conceits of international bureaucrats.
Sanders, however, promises to upend traditional U.S. foreign policy. He has made no secret of his opposition to the conflicts in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
“As the forces of militarism have kept us engaged in unending wars, we have stood arm-in-arm to fight back,” his campaign website trumpets. In January 2017, Sanders condemned the Trump administration position on so-called “enhanced interrogations.”
“Does Donald Trump really want to defy the Geneva Conventions and international law and make torture an official policy of the United States government?” he asked. “Whatever Trump may or may not want, Congress and the American people must defend American values. No torture.”
To be fair, Sanders was not speaking here about the U.N. or ICC. Ilhan Omar, a congresswoman from Minnesota and a vocal Sanders surrogate, however, does embrace the court. So, too, apparently, does chief Sanders foreign policy adviser Matt Duss, who, in 2015, retweeted a comment, “The best way to not get charged at the ICC remains not committing international crimes.”
Sanders promises to put the U.S. on a new path. He believes in liberal foreign policy and embraces international organizations and a multipolar world.
Given the ambition of the ICC to investigate and perhaps charge American service members and intelligence officers for supposed war crimes, Sanders should state clearly whether he would prioritize the court’s functions above American sovereignty and the protection of U.S. soldiers who risked everything to fight the terrorist threat in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Michael Rubin (@Mrubin1971) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a former Pentagon official.
