That's why we need an International Criminal Court. It is quite a revelation to watch how the Congress is coming round to the replenishment of the International Monetary Fund. For dangerously long, during the East Asian and Russian financial crises, it has refused to budge and offer a single extra dollar for a capital increase, either saying the remedy should be left to market forces or that America shouldn't be party to an international institution becoming so powerful. But now the evidence suggests the Asian crisis might spill over into Wall St. and undermine every Congressman's private shareholdings and pension fund and that the beleaguered Russian government may possibly lose control of its nuclear arsenal opinion has suddenly changed. Newt Gingrich, the House Speaker, recently made it plain that Congress will not allow the IMF to run out of money.
American isolationism comes perilously close to playing with fire.
Ironically, just as the White House gave orders to its delegation in Rome to vote against an international criminal court it has been trying to negociate a compromise with Libya. The UN-imposed embargo is badly leaking. Ten years on the relatives of those killed in PanAm 103 have lost all patience with the American and British governments in their insistence that the only trial they would respect is one on their own soil. But ad hocing it round political and legal impasses of this nature, with ten-year delays, is no long term solution. That has been done ever since the Nuremberg trials convicted the Nazi war criminals.