In Reply: "...this country recognizes no legal authority higher than the US Constitution."

In reply to various comments made at Typical United Nations idiocy - Dana Pico - Common Sense Political Thought:
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"One American value is that there is no substitute for victory. In war, the winners make the rules."

Winners write the history. The rules of war (and of post-war, too) are largely already written.

"Truman gave himself the “Right” to nuke Hiroshima..."

I'm pretty sure the right to drop bombs on a declared enemy during wartime existed prior to Truman. A new kind of bomb doesn't require a new "right," (though there were some spoken and unspoken negotiations and "rules" made about the use of such bombs, afterward.)

"...this country recognizes no legal authority higher than the US Constitution."
"There is no legal authority higher than the US Constitution and there is no legal authority over the US outside the US, period."

Sadly, this isn't as true as you folks'd like to believe. There are judgements made by the WTO and IMF that contravene our Constitution and US law. The Geneva conventions that Hitchcock cited earlier are "one world" laws, though they do largely fit in with US law. And, while they don't always have the force of law, we seem to give a good bit of deference to UN judgements, rules, and mandates, too. While I'm viscerally opposed to any body outweighing our sovereign US law at first thought, I also believe that there need to be rules governing the interactions between nations, just as there are rules that govern smaller sovereign bodies (states, cities, and we individuals). As I keep saying 'round here, I believe there are God-given, inalienable human rights that apply to every living person across the earth. (While "God bless America" is a wonderful slogan, the fact is that Tiny Tim's utterance was closer to the truth; God blesses us all, every one...) And while I believe that man is basically good, I also believe that we need laws and a means of enforcing them because man obviously isn't universally good... not even we Americans.

I believe in US sovereignty, but I also believe we need to make and keep legal agreements with other nations, and that there has to be a penalty for not doing so, that applies to every signing nation across the board (because otherwise, any agreement we make becomes meaningless.) For the most part, I believe that the international agreements we make and laws to which we agree are like the Geneva Conventions, in that they comport with our US Constitution and don't call our sovereignty into question. And to borrow Eric's point, being the biggest, baddest mofo's on the planet, I'm pretty sure we have the necessary leverage to maintain our US sovereignty and fealty to the Constitution in future international agreements and bodies, as well... YMMV...
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Posted 7 May 2011 at 13:40