On goring oxen
This move by nations around the world to set up a court to deal with those accused of genocide and murder for political reasons sounds like a progressive idea but it has its perils.
Trying war criminals means that some authority must decide who are the villains of the piece. To convict them witnesses must be found and documentary evidence presented. Not all mass murderers were as meticulous in their record-keeping as the Nazis in the Second World War.
Suppose a group of Arab nations registered a complaint against generals Schwartzkopf and Powell about bombing Iraq during the Desert Storm war. Suppose the Lebanese accused the head of the Israeli army of invading their territory and killing their citizens. Would trials result? When you set about goring oxes, it pays to know whose ox to gore.
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I once read a book called 1066 And All That. It took a light-hearted look at various battles and concluded they were either a Good Thing or a Bad Thing.
Assessing villainy in the Balkans, or Africa or Afghanistan where sectarian strife has been part of history for thousands of years is a long way from being the answer. There is a whole mindset that has to change or new outbreaks will erupt into the foreseeable future. How do you convince a national group to desist from a revenge assault on a faction or tribe that massacred their families?
The efforts in South Africa and Ireland toward resolving what seemed to be insoluble differences may yet provide a pattern that can be applied elsewhere. That, indeed, would be a Good Thing.
