Stardate 20030428.0752

(On Screen): In China, in 1937, the invading Japanese army captured the city of Nanking (Nanjing). Over the first few months of occupation, Japanese troops became progressively more brutal as discipline broke down, and ran amok. Civilians and captured soldiers were killed; tens of thousands of women were raped and many of those were then killed. Bodies were mutilated; there are even reports of cannibalism.

In 1942, the "Battling Bastards of Bataan" finally surrendered. They'd lasted longer than anyone had any right to expect, but there was never any hope of them being relieved. The Japanese forced them to march about 100 km to a POW camp. 70,000 men began the Bataan Death March, but only 54,000 arrived at the camp. The rest died along the way, mostly having been shot or bayoneted by Japanese guards.

In late 1944, as German forces were in retreat across France, an SS unit stopped in a French village. They rounded up all the civilians living there and killed them. The village still exists but is uninhabited; it's been preserved as a memorial.

These are things we call "war crimes". These are atrocities; clearly inhuman behavior totally unjustified by war. This is brutality for the sake of brutality; systematic and deliberate, wanton disregard for human life. There was a time when the term "war crime" was husbanded; reserved for the most egregious and outrageous cases.

No more. Nowadays, when it comes to war crimes you're innocent until proven American. A lawyer in Belgium, Jan Fermon, claims to represent 10 Iraqis who wish to charge US General Tommy Franks with war crimes.

Frankly, they'd really rather charge Bush and/or Rumsfeld, but Belgium recently amended that law to exempt certain heads of state and top government officials. Franks is the highest American official they can find who doesn't seem to be covered by those exemptions.

Mr. Fermon doesn't indicate who his clients are, nor is there any indication of who might be paying him. But he's been involved in high profile cases before and clearly has a strongly leftist bent. Googling his name, you see him spoken of with admiration by all the usual suspects in the anti-globalization and post-national movements. He's also had some pretty high-profile clients, such as Fidel Castro. He's a piece of work, he is.

Nor is it clear who truly initiated this case. It may actually have been initiated by Europeans who were in Baghdad during the war. Five European doctors, who seem to have gone to Baghdad at the last minute, begin their announcement thusly: The current humanitarian catastrophe is entirely and solely the responsibility of the US and British authorities, who launched a war of aggression against Iraq in complete violation of international law. After that balanced and unbiased appraisal, it's downhill from there.

Abuse of the term "war crime" in this way devalues the term and the concept and makes it harder to apply it where it's truly needed, in cases of real atrocities. It's blatantly apparent that this is politically motivated. I'd hope that Belgium's courts would see it for what it is and reject the case outright, but given their previous record in this kind of thing that's a forlorn hope at best.

Last year, as the ICC geared up to become operational, Congress passed a bill called the "American Servicemembers' Protection Act" which, among other things, granted the President authority to use "all means necessary" to bring about the release of any protected American or allied soldier or government figure who has been involuntarily detained by or on behalf of the ICC. That phrase is an ominous one, because it's traditionally interpreted to include the possible use of military force.

The USPA passed easily (305-130 in the House). It doesn't cover this case, which will be filed in Belgium. But that shows that Congress is likely to take a dim view of this.

It calls into question whether it might be time to consider moving NATO HQ out of the hostile enemy-occupied city of Brussels, to a city in a nation whose government is actually allied with us.

Like Warsaw.