The US likes to cloak itself in moral terms. It likes to envelop its policies with the trappings of “human rights,” “democracy,” and “a rules-based international order.” However, the disconnect between what America preaches around the globe and what America practices has become so wide that it cannot be obscured by statements at the podium or patriotic fiction. “From ignoring ICJ rulings to vetoing UN resolutions, Washington bends global justice to its will,” said Agnes Callamard of Amnesty International.

In November 2024, when the International Criminal Court upheld arrest warrants for Israeli leaders, Washington did not applaud global accountability. The US did not hail the arrival of the law. They punished the judges. They punished the court. They labeled justice itself the enemy. And then, in June of 2025, the ICC upheld these arrest warrants, and the US reinforced its reaction. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was adamant that America would “never stand for ICC abuses of power.” The ICC thundered back, saying that the US actions constitute “a flagrant attack on judicial independence,” which translates into what the world already knows: that the US fears justice.

This was just the beginning, part of a larger pattern.

When the ICC started investigating war crimes in 2020 in the US, the country sanctioned officials in the ICC. It did this without arguing with them or debating the issue. They sanctioned the officials as if they were criminals, and the process of investigating war crimes was terrorism.

The International Court of........

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