War Crimes Happen
By 
And what is to be done? That is the position of militaries that want to commit war crimes.
It is not far from the position of the United States Department of Defense.
The Pentagon is blocking the Biden administration from sharing evidence with the International Criminal Court in The Hague gathered by American intelligence agencies about Russian atrocities in Ukraine, according to current and former officials briefed on the matter.
American military leaders oppose helping the court investigate Russians because they fear setting a precedent that might help pave the way for it to prosecute Americans. The rest of the administration, including intelligence agencies and the State and Justice Departments, favors giving the evidence to the court, the officials said.
The traditional reason given for this is that false charges against US military personnel might be lodged to gum up the gears of war.
But this delicacy of sensibility is interfering with prosecuting Russian war crimes in progress as I write this and over the past year.
But Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, who helped push Congress to ease the restrictions last year on aiding the International Criminal Court, confirmed the parameters of the dispute and blamed the Defense Department for its reluctance.
“D.O.D. opposed the legislative change — it passed overwhelmingly — and they are now trying to undermine the letter and spirit of the law,” Mr. Graham said. “It seems to me that D.O.D. is the problem child here, and the sooner we can get the information into the hands of the I.C.C., the better off the world will be.”
There’s a matryoshka of malpractice here, starting with the Republican refusal to ratify treaties.
President Bill Clinton signed the Rome Statute in 2000 but, calling it flawed, did not send it to the Senate for ratification. In 2002, President George W. Bush essentially withdrew that signature. Congress, for its part, enacted laws in 1999 and 2002 that limited what support the government could provide the court.
Biden should tell Secretary of Defense Austin to get on with it, and the US should join the International Criminal Court. Then we can put Putin on trial.