The USA is usually quick to demand justice when transgressions are committed by other nations. It also seems very reluctant to accept the notion that America itself can ever do anything wrong. Because it is so big and powerful and omnipresent, other countries find it very difficult to hold America to account for anything it does. America refuses to submit itself to the authority of the International Court and it does not usually allow others to pass judgement on the actions of its military personnel overseas. Many Americans seem to genuinely believe their country is so morally superior and so important that it should not have to follow the same rules everybody else does. This belief is enshrined in the doctrine known as 'American Exceptionalism'.

Is America so exceptional? The other day it bombed a hospital in Afghanistan, killing patients and many volunteer doctors. As a result, many local people have been deprived of essential emergency trauma treatment and other hospital services as the bombed hospital was the only facility of its kind serving the city of Kunduz and surrounding area. The highly respected charity running it, Médecins Sans Frontières, has called the bombing a war crime and is demanding a proper investigation of it. They emphatically point out that the GPS coordinates of the hospital were made available to the American and Afghan military forces, and there was no conceivable justification for attacking it.

I wonder what others think about this. Should America be charged and tried for a war crime (bearing in mind that it can be found innocent as well as guilty)? Should it be held accountable in the same way other countries are? Should there be one set of rules for the USA, and another set for everyone else? Does American military and economic might, and America's professed commitment to democratic principles, entitle it to special treatment? What arguments are there to back up any of these stands?