John Bolton Must Go

Dear friends:

It is not news to any of you that John Bolton, the National Security Adviser to President Donald Trump, has denounced the International Criminal Court as a purported threat to the interests of the United States, and to all Americans, including those in uniform. Unsurprisingly, his misleading and regressive public comments denouncing the Court have been repudiated by many, including Judge Chile Eboe-Osuji, the Presiding judge of the ICC, the ACLU, and professionals in the field, including David Crane, former Chief Prosecutor of the Sierra Leone Tribunal. 16 years ago, I refuted all objections to the Court in an article “Misguided Fears about the ICC”.

For anyone who may not yet have seen it, I would draw your attention to an online post of 12 April 2018 on the website of Veterans Today by a blogger, John Z., who observed: “Bolton is a narcissistic bully, a dangerous psychopath, a degenerate and a threat to the people of this planet … Bolton must be removed from Washington ASAP. The consequences of him remaining there are too awful to bear.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Yesterday, an ICC judge, Christoph Flügge, resigned as a consequence of the current U.S. policy of threatening Court personnel and the rule of law itself.

In 1958, President Dwight Eisenhower declared that “In a very real sense, the world no longer has a choice between force and law. If civilization is to survive, it must choose the rule of law.” In the choice between Eisenhower and Bolton, I choose Eisenhower. Bolton must go!

Ben Ferencz