Posturing on US ‘war crimes’

More than the “self-harm” mentioned by Alexander Downer will result from the International Criminal Court’s decision to investigate alleged US war crimes in Afghanistan. By embarking on a process that will also probe alleged Taliban war crimes, the court has sought to establish a moral and legal equivalence between the actions of the two main sides in the Afghan conflict that is as disgraceful as it is far removed from reality. At immense cost after 9/11, the US and its allies, including Australia, ousted al-Qa’ida, liberated Afghanistan’s people — particularly its long-oppressed women — from obscurantist, medieval rule, and spent billions rebuilding its education and health systems and infrastructure.

In contrast, the Taliban has killed tens of thousands of Afghan civilians in terrorist attacks that had respected defence research group Jane’s labelling it “the world’s most deadly terrorist group”, supplanting Islamic State. In 2018, Jane’s says, Taliban attacks rose 86 per cent and 4617 “non-militants” were murdered. Yet somehow the ICC reckons the US and the Taliban are on a par when it comes to investigation of alleged war crimes in Afghanistan. As Mr Downer said, the ICC’s decision will undermine its credibility and lend weight to claims it has been captured by anti-American activists.

Since it was established in 2002 with a mandate to investigate genocide and other crimes against humanity, the ICC has focused on Africa, but it has also followed the well-worn path of UN-linked bodies and prioritised claims against Israel over alleged war crimes, as well as the US and its allies. In a letter to independent MP Andrew Wilkie in February, the ICC prosecutor’s office said our offshore detention regime was “cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment” and “unlawful under international law”. It stopped short of deciding to prosecute the government. The ICC’s Afghanistan probe is not expected to have any direct bearing on Canberra, which is pursuing a series of investigations into alleged war crimes committed by Australian troops, but, having signed on to the ICC in 2002, that should not diminish Australian concern about the dangerous and misguided course on which the ICC has embarked.