Ever since an international tribunal in the Hague ruled against China last July in a dispute over ownership of islands in the South China Sea, the U.S. mainstream press has lambasted China for refusing to comply with the Court’s ruling. For example, three days ago a New York Times editorial pointed out that China, which had challenged the Court’s jurisdiction and refused to participate in the proceedings, took China to task for its “defiance, its acts of “provocation,” and its apparent lack of “commitment to the rule of law.”
However, the Chinese communist regime is not the only government that refuses to comply with rulings of international tribunals. The U.S. government falls in the same category, something that the U.S. mainstream press, for some unknown reason, invariably fails to mention when castigating China for its decision.
During the Cold War, the U.S. national-security establishment initiated one of its many regime-change operations against a socialist regime in Nicaragua. The operation entailed at least two illegal schemes, one that involved the infamous Iran-Contra affair, and the other involving the U.S. mining of Nicaraguan waters.
Keep in mind that Nicaragua never invaded the United States. It never initiated any acts of terrorism against the United States. No acts of sabotage. Nothing. Instead, it was the U.S. national-security establishment that was the aggressor against Nicaragua, just as it was always the aggressor against Cuba, Chile, Guatemala, and other Cold War targets of U.S. regime change.
Keep in mind also that Congress never declared war on Nicaragua, which, under our system of government, is a prerequisite for waging war against against another country. Needless to say, the mining of another country’s harbor constitutes an act of war.
Nicaragua sued the United States in the International Court of Justice. After considering the evidence, the International Court entered a $12 billion judgment against the United States for its illegal mining of Nicaraguan waters.
There was one big problem, however: Like the Chinese communist regime today, the U.S. government refused to comply with the Court’s ruling. It took the same position that China takes today: that that Court lacked jurisdiction to enter its ruling. Obviously, Nicaragua lacked the means to enforce its judgment, which was never paid.
Although the U.S. mainstream press continues to show outrage over China’s refusal to comply with the international tribunal’s ruling, the website Sputnik reports that the U.S. national-security establishment recently docked a U.S. Navy destroyer in a Chinese port city of the province of Shandong in an attempt to “build relationships” with the Chinese. It’s apparently the way that one national-security state reaches out to another national-security state in friendship.
