U.S. Threatens to U.N. Veto. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations has threatened to shut down peacekeeping operations in Bosnia with a rare Security Council veto if U.S. peacekeepers are not granted immunity from the world's first permanent war crimes tribunal. [AP World News]
We've known about this for a while. It's been featured on television news here in Europe and the first rumblings have already been on the news feeds. But to think that the US would go to these lengths is extraordinary: to jeopardise peacekeeping in Bosnia simply to get endorsement for yet another instance of its refusal to play ball with international agencies is a crime in itself. The attitude behind it all will do absolutely nothing to gain friends for the US.
Other governments who have already signed up to the war crimes tribunal (in other words, just about everyone except the US) are being placed in an impossible situation. Use of the US big stick is becoming far too commonplace these days. Please, please, please let the Security Council call this bluff and tell the US that their forces are not wanted.
12:23:32 PM 
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