A Tool of the Western World

Libya's new political governors-in-waiting are exultant that the International Criminal Court has issued a warrant against Col. Moammar Ghadafi, two of his top aides, his son Saif al-Islam and his regime's intelligence chief, Abdullah al-Sanussi. The arrest warrant is completely irrelevant, however, as the tribunal, the Libyan regime states, has no authority.

Claiming that the King of Kings is guilty of crimes against humanity merely points out to them that they are incompetent to judge a leader who is protecting his country against violent criminals, drug addicts and Islamists.

Rebel leaders in Benghazi in particular, however are wild with joy. People gathered in the streets to celebrate, and to fire their arms into the air in wild applause at the wisdom of the ICC. Although the rebels have been incapable of making headway in their purported push on to Tripoli and the eventual defeat of the regime, this recognition of Libya's torment on the part of their leader by the ICC, along with the regime targeting of NATO have given them new levels of optimism.

Moammar Gadhafi has succeeded in brutalizing his country, in attacking with mortars, helicopter gunships and tanks his unruly subjects. Thousands may have died in the process of defying his authority and attempting to dislodge him from his desert throne. He has so far succeeded in denying NATO the easy victory they initially assumed, thinking that a week would be all it would take to hand victory over to the rebels.

But in Syria Bashar al-Assad is conducting himself and his regime in a mirror-image assault in his people as well. In Syria too tens of thousands of desperate Syrians have had to flee their villages, their homes and their farms, eager to save themselves from the ravages of Assad's Republican Guard and his brother's avenging hatred for them. Villages have been razed, crops burned, farm animals destroyed, people murdered by sharp-shooting troops.

Syria's al-Assad has succeeded in infuriating a loyal ally up to the present time, with Turkey caring for over ten thousand of border refugees, many of them mutilated by Syrian troops. Turkey, a NATO member, has no wish for NATO to become involved in Syria. NATO has no wish for itself to become mired down in yet another ill-considered move to ameliorate an Islamic-led insurrection that requires an Islamic, not a Western solution.

As for the International Criminal Court, will they next target Bashar al-Assad, as they surely must if they've seen merit in charging Moammar Gadhafi. While considering ruefully the charges brought against Sudan's President, Omar al-Bashir with three counts of genocide in Darfur, and the fact that he is welcome in any Arab or Muslim country of the world, all of whom shrug off the relevance of the charges against him.

So the tool of the Western World intent on prosecuting leaders in the Third World, limps along in its belief that by naming and shaming and urging arrest of the world's blatant mass murderers, it brings restorative justice to the world.

Not if the Arab Bloc and the African Bloc can help it.