“A few, undeserving and awful people wield far too much power,” says columnist HUGH SELBY. “They hold it for themselves. The rest of us are like scurrying mice, hoping not to be squelched.”

Decades ago, when returning from a work trip in western NSW, we drove through a mice plague.

The car tyres squelched and squelched: lots of mice didn’t make it into the next paddock of grain.

It never occurred to us to take a longer, mice-free route. The mice were there. The mice paid the price for being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

It has taken me much too long, decades, to fathom what Trump, Putin, and Netanyahu know instinctively: no casualty rate is too high, except your own.

As the orange clown plans his next move in the Middle East he needs to be worried about returning body bags if the ceasefire fails and fighting resumes. (Those worries are additional to the cost-of-living increases in the US. Such increases cost Donnie’s buddy in Hungary, Viktor Orban, an election.)

Putin has used foreign mercenaries and prisoners to fight his land war in the Ukraine. That’s a clever approach: it contains Russian discontent. But the reporting is that more than 300,000 of his troops are dead, and between double and triple that number wounded.

For comparison we lost 60,000 in World War I and 40,000 in World War II. 

The Americans reportedly lost 4500 in the Iraqi conflict. 

President George W Bush’s support rose and fell with the Iraq War. His standing with the American public made him “a prisoner of events in Iraq”. Support for that war started at around 80 per cent and dropped to 30 per cent. His personal approval which stood at 90 per cent after 9/11 dropped to under 30 per cent.

American losses in Iraq are small when compared to the more than 55,000 lost in Vietnam. But that number was enough for Barack Obama to get some 52 per cent of the popular vote at the 2008 presidential election.

The Israeli losses of 941 soldiers and 70 police in the current Gaza War have not led to regime change in Israel. The next election must be held before late October. Netanyahu may call the election early, but if and only if he sees electoral advantage. He has to ponder the electoral consequences of his failure to bring many of the hostages back alive.

The number of dead civilians in Gaza and in Lebanon, now well above 70,000, and dead Ukrainians (at least 100,000 soldiers plus 15,000 civilians) and Iranians seems, tragically, like counting mice. 

Schools, hospitals – collateral damage, nothing more, nothing less. The students, the teachers, the patients, the medical and nursing staff, the occasional journalists were in the wrong place at the wrong time. And now they exist no more: as if it was their mistake or their fault.

Role of the International Criminal Court

Every so often someone, wringing their hands, makes a reference to international law and the rules of war. Why do they bother? These obligations are aspirational. They are used only to justify the victors’ treatment of the defeated. 

Trump, Putin, and Netanyahu will never be called to account. They are too well protected.

During the administration of former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, between 6000 and 30,000 people were killed, arbitrarily labelled as disposable, as better for the living if they were dead. For a useful summary of Duterte’s career and conduct see here. 

Out of office, and out of power, he is facing trial in the Hague before the International Criminal Court (ICC). As the orange clown would say, “Big loser, big, very big”. 

While Duterte was in power the ICC began a preliminary investigation into allegations against him. He immediately withdrew the Philippines from the ICC. However, the ICC had jurisdiction over the alleged crimes against Duterte from November 1, 2011, when the Philippines agreed to ICC jurisdiction, until March 16, 2019, when the withdrawal became official.

Like Trump he claims absolute immunity for anything done in his official capacity. That worked against him because one of the reasons for ICC jurisdiction is an inability of local law to be applied.

Since his arrest in March 2025 he has been held in the Hague, facing counts of crimes against humanity. His latest bid for freedom was rejected by the court in mid-April 2026.

Neither the US nor Israel have submitted to the jurisdiction of the ICC.

That hasn’t stopped the ICC from issuing an arrest warrant in late 2024 for Netanyahu for his genocide of the Palestinians. 

No warrant has been issued for President Herzog who described the issue of the warrant for Netanyahu as a “dark day for justice”.

It is surprising that our federal government chose to invite this man to our country early this year. Once Netanyahu’s political opponent, he has chosen to make no public criticism of Netanyahu’s conduct of the war. That amounts to acquiescence.

Russia did sign the treaty; however, it never ratified it. In 2016 Putin formally withdrew Russia’s acceptance of the treaty. In 2023 the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin. That warrant is still “live”.

This means, at least in theory, that both Putin’s and Netanyahu’s travel plans will not include countries, like Australia, that have signed up to support the ICC.

People who want to hold Putin to account disappear. Netanyahu has successfully staved off criminal proceedings in Israel for years. Trump was given “carte blanche” by a 6:3 decision of the US Supreme Court, a decision that reversed long-standing notions of accountability before the law.

After the break-up of the former Yugoslavia and the “ethnic cleansing” that followed, the UN Security Council established a special tribunal for the prosecution of key participants.

A few of them are still imprisoned.

The ICC has had some success in convicting African warlords. Those people, like Duterte, were denied the chance to kill on the scale afforded to Vlad, Bibi and the orange clown.

The moral of this story is that a few, undeserving and awful people wield far too much power. They hold it for themselves. The rest of us are scurrying mice, hoping not to be squelched as they play with their war toys.

Legal columnist Hugh Selby is a former barrister.