"Astonishingly Disturbing" - Endless War Across the Globe

[Jan Klimkowski]

My emphasis in bold:

Obama pressured Maliki for years to permit up to 30,000 U.S. troops in Iraq after the "combat troops" pulled out. In mid-October 2011 the Iraqi leader finally accepted 3,000 to 5,000 troops in a training-only capacity. The Iraqis then insisted that they remain largely confined to their bases, and refused Washington's demand to grant legal immunity to the soldiers when they entered the larger society.
That was the deal-breaker. Washington routinely demands legal exemption for its foreign legions as a matter of imperial hubris, and would not compromise. The day after the deal collapsed, Obama issued a public statement intended to completely conceal his failure. "Today," he said, "I can report that, as promised, the rest of our troops in Iraq will come home by the end of the year."
Several important issues in the Washington-Kabul post-2014 negotiations seem to have been decided, including a U.S. payment of at least $10 billion a year to train and pay for some 400,000 Afghan soldiers and police officers. Among the remaining issues are two of considerable importance troop strength and legal immunity for American personal (both for soldiers and tens of thousands of U.S. "contractors" who will remain in the country).
Reports circulated in the last few months that between 3,000 and 20,000 U.S. troops, mainly Special Forces, CIA contingents, drone operators and contractors of various kinds, will remain after 2014. The main air cover is expected to come from Navy aircraft carriers probably stationed in the Arabian Sea or Indian Ocean. Drones are expected to play a major role in battle as well as surveillance. Last year there were some 400 drone attacks in Afghanistan and that number is expected to continue increasing.

This is absolutely outrageous.

Historically, diplomats - aka spies - have had "immunity": the right to commit crimes and then be spirited out of the country in which they commited the crime rather than face criminal justice.

That is bad enough.

For the US to insist on extending such immunity, formally, to troops, contractors and black ops off the books squads engaged in sabotage and assassination missions demonstrates that America truly is a rogue state, which believes that its nationals are above the rule of law.

Of course the US also refuses to recognise the International Criminal Court responsible for trying war crimes and crimes against humanity.