Watcha gonna do when they come for you?

So, in a tragic, hillarious and very high profile and politically provocative move, the first arrest warrant for an incumbent head of state in the history of the International Criminal Court has been requested for the arrest of Sudanese president Omar El Bashir for crimes against humanity and genocide in Darfur. Obviously, this could really be destabilizing for Sudan if carried out, but working to stop the ICC is embarassing for everyone too.

Without degenerating into the mindless "how-come-no-one's-trying-George-Bush" type nonesense (nonesense because it doesn't take a morally hyped up idiot to tell us that there are politics involved or to point out that modern civilisation has seen worse than El Bashir, but it does take one to confuse premeditated ethnic cleansing with other awful shit), it's interesting to contemplate the fate of Sudan if the arrest warrant were to actually be issued. Even more amusing to think about is the response of some of the Arab public (Can you say Imperialism 500 times fast? Or can you count the number of journalists who will make copious amounts of money defending war crimes in the name of Arab honor?).

Obviously this situation is not, and has never been about Justice (although there have been some commendable efforst to make it about that) and the situation is as politically sensetive as ever. At the same time that this may be the only way to bring a certain amount of ethics to what is happening in Darfur( although what kind of crazy shit would happen were another Arab country be stripped of its dictator, only God knows) this development also uncovers a degree of discrepancy between the Global North and the Global South, and says something about who can get away with what.

But at the end of the day, the son of a bitch deserves it. (and yes, I do have a personal vendetta against the man). In my view, more than anyone else. And hey, we should catch the ones we can catch anyway. The fact that some big guys are too big to be caught shouldn't stop us from trying to make the lives of those we can hell. For now, I'm just enjoying the thought of Omar El Bashir not knowing whether he'll be under Sudan-arrest in a few months-and what a horrible prospect he's made that become.