War Crimes Probe: Just Asking Questions (Again)
The question of 'political will' for war crimes probes (Al Jazeera, 2025/10/17) has a perennial ring to it, like a bad greatest hits album. We heard it after Sabra & Shatila in 1982, after Cast Lead in 2008, Protective Edge in 2014, and countless operations in between. Each time, the US leverages its security council veto, and its allies quietly follow suit. Why 'probe' what’s already documented,
often by UN bodies and human rights groups? Perhaps because probing implies a capacity for surprise. Of course, the 'will' for accountability conveniently evaporates when the primary financier of the weapons involved—the United States—is implicated by proximity. Consider the roughly $3.8 billion in annual military aid, approved steadfastly by a Congress whose members, like Rep. Mike Lawler
(R-NY-17) who took $77,698 from AIPAC in 2022, then voted to increase aid to Israel. Expecting unbiased investigations is like expecting water from a desert after you've paid for the sand. How many more 'deeply concerned' statements does it take before we admit the 'international community' is often just a polite term for US foreign policy? (Source: OpenSecrets.org, 2022 campaign cycle).