In the first place, an American, Theodor Meron, was a member of the Court that convicted Mladić. In the second place, I am not sure what “American war on Yugoslavia” you are talking about. The U.S. military activities, including the bombings, in the region were part of the NATO operations. I have read articles favoring one side or the other but they all seem to hinge on things taken out of context.

As I said in my original comments, the United States is not a democracy and never has been a democracy. We are a democratic republic.

For some reason, people don’t seem to understand that democracy is one of the most violent forms of government imaginable. It guarantees partisanship, confrontation and conflict. That’s because the people don’t all agree on things and power is granted to those who can sway the most supporters to their side.

The good thing about democracy is that it’s adaptable. That’s also the bad thing. Society and its mores change over time and that change is often uncomfortable. Sometimes those changes are transitory: how many of today’s conservatives were liberals years ago — or at least liberal for the time.

This is why the creators of the U.S. Constitution made instituting change more challenging. While some amendments to the Constitution were ratified quickly, most of them were never ratified at all and some took over a century to be approved. This is why representatives of the people stand for reelection every to years, but senators are elected to six-year terms. Senators weren’t even elected directly by the people until the Seventeenth amendment was ratified in 1913, nearly 125 years after the Constitution was approved. The Senate was supposed to be a stabilizing influence on the House, which the Founding Fathers assumed would be more vulnerable to whims.

Beyond that, the United States is just that: a group of 50 sovereign states with a common central government which is limited in its powers. The Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution specifically says that all rights and powers not specifically delegated to the federal government are reserved to the states and the people.

While it may not appear that our “democracy” isn’t working out, our “republic” is doing just fine.