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Arresting the leader of a sovereign nation amounts at least to a diplomatic crisis, and at worst to a declaration of war.
And before George Bush is brought to trial I don't think the West has much credibility in dealing with war criminals.
We'd arrest him but he'd have to set foot in Germany, or at least Europe, first. The US are hardly going to extradite him, aren't they.
No country would ever arrest Bush. The US has far too much invested in insuring qualified immunity for former heads of state. Imagine if every president knew that any country could either arrest or coerce extradition based solely on decisions made in office, nobody would run for office. There is an implicit guarantee that current presidents will retailate against states that imprison US citizens who act in an official capacity.
Additionally there is no arrest warrant for Bush in Germany, or any country in Europe.
Germany claims universal jurisdiction for crimes against humanity as well as wars of aggression. The US can try as much as it wants to tell Germany "Bush is going to come please don't arrest him", the answer will be "Have a look at our laws it's all laid out in very clear terms". And, no, he's not going to be recognised as a US diplomat, and therefore won't be granted immunity.
And of course there's no arrest warrant he's not in the country and if we'd send out an Interpol notice the US would go ballistic. Hence the simple understanding that he's not going to come over for a visit.
States generally decide who to extradite on their own terms. That is nothing new or unusual and Germany certainly isn't in a position to complain the US won't extradite a citizen given that we don't extradite citizens as a matter of principle (unless it's within the EU and certain conditions are met), but instead trial them over here.
Pretty sure there is a good deal of evidence that Germany caves into US pressure. In fact you admit it yourself, ”US would go ballistic” you claim.
If the US going ballistic over a public Interpol red card is sufficient to prevent Germany from issuing one, where would the sudden courage come from to actually arrest Bush?
"The answer will be 'Have a look at our laws...'"
No the answer will be "Whatever you say President Biden”. Germany is an incredibly weak country, UK and France are much more geopolitically powerful than Germany and they are effectively US satellites.
It's simply hilarious how you are trying to puff up Germany as somehow this great power that can afford to alienate the US.
There's no need to irritate the US when the chances of the US extraditing are zero anyway. And as to arresting him if he sets on German soil: That's not a matter of courage but law. You know, rule of law and everything you might've heard of it.
We're doing that fucking constantly. Get your Seppo exceptionalism in check you can't even cast tank barrels without our help much less produce microchips.
”Get your Seppo exceptionalism in check"
Pretty sure I'm not the one who is claiming that my country can unilaterally take an action against a much stronger state that has only ever happened to weaker states and through international coalitions. What makes you think that Germany is so special and heroic that it alone, out of every state in the world, will arrest George Bush?
"You can't even cast tank barrels without our help"- Who needs tanks when you have air power? Also the US can easily manufacture tank barrels, it has an extremely advanced metallurgy industry, it also produces 12 percent of the total microchips in the world.
Don't try to compare Germany to a state 4 times larger than it, you're going to be sad and disappointed.
It's a matter of law, not politics. Politicians don't get asked, it's all the juridical system, and no there's no legal basis to give diplomatic immunity to non-diplomats (or, to a limited degree, their direct families). You really don't get it do you. It's why Bush, unlike e.g. Obama, doesn't ever come over. He no doubt has been advised about the situation.
It's the same reason why Putin didn't come to South Africa: He was advised that he would be arrested.
Is that why the US industry begged Trump to cave in in that little steel trade war so that they would not have to pay premium for alloys the US industry can't produce.
Yeah try doing that without German machines, machine components, metrology equipment, and similar. The list of critical components and knowledge we or another European nation (mostly German-speaking ones though) are the sole provider of is practically endless, it's got to do with our economic structure full of hidden champions, small, even tiny, companies completely dominating the world market in their one particular and critical niche.
What do you intend to do, invade? Lose the modicum of dignity you have left on the international stage? Over a war criminal? Against the whole of NATO plus EU? Not to mention that we can sink carriers without you knowing where the torpedo came from (ask your Admirals), and the French would have no qualms to nuke one as a warning shot.
But I have no doubt that you will find some exceptionalist cope to continue believing that the US is all-powerful. That you could snip your fingers and tell us "Bush is going to hold a speech in Berlin and he's not getting arrested". That's not how the world works. The way the world works is that he's not getting arrested because he's not coming over because you'd, push come to shove, rather limit his movement than let him be arrested because you don't like where that would lead. It's the scenario everyone is way more comfortable with than any of the alternatives so it is the scenario that happens.
Yeah, no this is patently false. German judicial system isn't running around jeopardizing it's foreign relations. Germany explicitly guaranteed that Rumsfeld wouldn't be arrested.
Also why are you hell-bent on promoting a conspiracy theory? You have zero evidence that there is an arrest warrant or that there ever will be. Your apparent basis for this is that George Bush hasn't visited Germany post-presidency, which might be a fair point except that Bush hasn't visited most countries in Europe post-presidency. Germany is simply not that special, UK or France are more important on the world stage.
"Against the whole of NATO, and the EU".
US armed forces dominate NATO. UK and France are the second and 3rd strongest by far. Your submarine fleet isn't even functional, the Bundswehr is a laughing stock, you literally had to use broomsticks in military exercises because you have no rifles. If you think that France would defend you and not just invade your sad little country itself you're delusional.
This is a level of insane German nationalism not seen outside of an Austrian in the 1930s.
When he wasn't a secretary, but out of office? [citation needed]
Have you heard about this thing called division of power. If the government doesn't want iffy foreign incidences then the diplomatic corps avoids them by keeping people away from the country.
Just checked on wikipedia, your confusion might stem from the fact that prosecutors in the US don't have to prosecute if they don't feel like it. That's not a thing in Germany: If there's a suspicion then there's an investigation and if that results in sufficient evidence then there's a trial. None of it is optional, up to the individual public servant or least of all any politician.
...I'll leave you to that belief though then why are other ex Presidents here all the time.
And this proves that you have no idea what you're talking about. First off, the broomstick (singular) was used not to simulate a rifle, but a machine gun on top of a command vehicle. Secondly, that command vehicle had exactly as much armament as it was supposed to have -- it's just that the unit disagreed with the top brass, they wanted the command vehicle to have a gun just like the other vehicles even if it lacks a dedicated gunner (it's the unit commander's seat). So they took a broomstick to an exercise, the commander simulated gunshots in his off-time, hit stuff (at least conceptually), and thereby convinced the top brass that command vehicles should, indeed, also have guns and that's why they now have them. It's the exact kind of cheeky insubordination you want in an army.
Ah. Godwin's law. How predictable.
Why are you using Wikipedia to speculate on my information sources? (I author Wikipedia articles so the idea that you think I source my information from them is laughable).
"And I'll leave you to that belief when other ex-presidents have visited Germany".
This is literally your only data point. There are numerous reasons why someone wouldn't visit Germany, Bush largely retired from public life and visits very few countries. The fact that they haven't visited Germany is easily explained by the fact that they are just not that interesting of a country. You have absolutely no basis to claim that there is a secret arrest warrant, this is simply something that you fabricated. (Possibly from Amnesty International's attempt to get an arrest warrant {which failed}. See I can speculate on your information sources too. )
Also the BND literally broke German law to provide the US with intelligence, the idea that Germany is somehow immune to US influence (or just straight political realism) is utterly insane. You are just so hardcore nationalist that you refuse to accept it.
"Also this proves that you have no idea what you are talking about".
Actually I'm quite aware of the incident, and yes it was overblown by the media. It's still a humourous spin on Germany's poor readiness, which you never actually addressed. But at least you seem to have dropped any pretense that the Bundswehr wouldn't immediately surrender, especially considering that the US has 30k troops in Germany already.
"Godwin's law..."
Not exactly sure what problem you have with this reasoning. If Bush doesn't visit Germany, it can only be because he has an arrest warrant that has never been revealed. Likewise if you assert that Germany is so special that it ignores political consequences (and is even capable and willing to fight a war with the US), it can only be because you are a fascist. Why does this reasoning suddenly become unacceptable when it's applied to you? (It was always unacceptable you are just so hung up on "Deutschland Uber Alles" that you are willing to fabricate nonsense to preserve your image of Germany).
You got me there he might simply be uninterested. Doesn't change anything about the rest, though. Your gotcha isn't half as smart as you think it is.
That's not the legal system, and no they did not literally break it -- they made their own interpretation of it and avoided the checks placed on them. Ask yourself how often the CIA did that, it's a thing intelligence agencies do.
That's quite a different ballpark than a journalist, inevitably, filing a criminal complaint with the state attorney in person, standing there, asking "and what will you do now?"
No it's something that you fabricated, right there. I can't be arsed to go back but if I remember right I said the exact opposite: That no warrant currently exists. But it is implicit in our legal system: If he landed on German soil it'd be there in one way or the other within the hour. Maybe not immediate arrest but supervision / forbidden to leave the country while the wheels of the courts churn to judge the accusations, whether it's enough to hold him.
No European country would arrest Putin, let alone a NATO country, and especially not Germany lol. They wouldn't even allow him into the country in the first place.
I think they were talking about Bush. While I think Cheney deserves it more, was there ever an arrest warrant for either of them?
I don't think so, which is also one of the reasons anyone outside the western hemisphere can safely dismiss anything the ICC says. But also the US made it pretty clear it would not accept any international court ruling, and AFIK there even was a slight threat of violence when it was being discussed a decade ago.