Now that the internal White House memos of Gonzales are exposed by Newsweek there is good reason why BushCo wanted out of the International Criminal Court (signed by President Clinton but not ratified) and Geneva Conventions because of blowback from the "war on terror".

"In the memo, the White House lawyer focused on a little known 1996 law passed by Congress, known as the War Crimes Act, that banned any Americans from committing war crimes—defined in part as "grave breaches" of the Geneva Conventions. Noting that the law applies to "U.S. officials" and that punishments for violators "include the death penalty," Gonzales told Bush that "it was difficult to predict with confidence" how Justice Department prosecutors might apply the law in the future. This was especially the case given that some of the language in the Geneva Conventions—such as that outlawing "outrages upon personal dignity" and "inhuman treatment" of prisoners—was "undefined."

What is contradictory is this, from the article:

The memo, by Justice lawyers John Yoo and Robert Delahunty, also concludes—in response to a question by the Pentagon—that U.S. soldiers could not be tried for violations of the laws of war in Afghanistan because such international laws have "no binding legal effect on either the President or the military.

Why?

For signatories to the Geneva Conventions agrees to this:

Each nation that signs agrees to enforce its own violations and those of others. As an example, the U.S. Department of Defense has military laws that would bring charges against anyone in the military that commits a war crime. Those laws were in effect in 1971, when Lt. William Calley was put on trial for the murder of unarmed civilians at My Lai during the Vietnam War. This is from "What are the Geneva Conventions?"

So this administration knowingly goes about abdicating it's responsiblity to both American law and the Geneva Conventions.

When will world leaders start shunning Mr. Bush?