The Bush Administration has decided to take all its marbles and go home. It has suspended military aid to 35 countries who won't agree to give U.S.citizens immunity before the International Criminal Court.

When India and the U.S. signed a non-extradition pact last year, promising each other not to turn over citizens to any third party or international tribunal, we had this to say:

This sounds like a purely manipulative gesture to try and defeat the power of the International Criminal Court--had we signed on to the Rome Statute, we'd be in there with the other 139 countries right now, making up the rules. Instead we're left out. The Court will go on without us or our input. We were ambivalent about the ICC in the beginning, but last year we had a chance to review the draft guidelines under consideration, and heard a panel of military and international law professors and experts dissect and debate it, and we changed our mind. Here is the list of countries that are part of the Court.

Some historical information on the ICC:

The International Criminal Court (ICC) was established by the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court on 17 July 1998, when 120 States participating in the "United Nations Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court" adopted the Statute. This is the first ever permanent, treaty based, international criminal court established to promote the rule of law and ensure that the gravest international crimes do not go unpunished.

Even though the U.S. is not a party to the court, American criminal defense lawyers have been volunteering their time and paying their own expenses to defend those accused in the court. The International Criminal Bar was formed in July, 2002 in Montreal. In attendance were 350 lawyers from 48 countries and 68 international, regional, and national bars and numerous non-governmental organizations from around the world. Here are some reasons we should be a party to the International Criminal Court.

Bush should remember that what goes around comes around.

[Ed. Corrected after reviewing reader comment below.]