The United States was at the forefront of the war crimes tribunal set up to try the Nazis, and the Japanese after the second world war and more recently the Yugoslavs and Serbians. So when the nations of the world met in Rome to discuss the International Criminal Court which would try cases of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, it came as a big surprise to find the US and France stand against the rest of Europe and most of Asia and Africa.

America fearing that its widely deployed troops could be the victims of frivolous charges by a politicized court, is holding up the agreement in an attempt to insert a clause requiring the approval of the US government before any of its citizens can be prosecuted.

In its opposition to the new international court the US stands alongside countries like Cuba, Libya, Iran and the Sudan! Politics has been known to make strange bedfellows, but this!