This will be my first diary that I have attempted on Daily Kos although I do lurk alot and comment occasionaly. I just found this article on Digg and didn't see any comments about it here so I thought I should bring it up.
US quits Human Rights Council
My personal thoughts...
The article states that one possible cause is the lack of committment the US has show for working with the Council.
"For Human Rights Watch (HRW), the US has shown very little commitment to human rights in general. The working group against arbitrary detention gave up going to Guantanamo last month because Washington would not allow its members to have face to face meetings with detainees."
While the US didn't commit to human rights concerns, it actively took part in the review of other countries such as Romania, Japan, Guatemala, Peru, Tunisia, Ukraine, Indonesia and others.
So what was happening is that while our government had no problem with actively scrutinizing other countries, but didn't want to be held accountable for the US's own actions. Such as the "floating prisons" that hold those arrested in the "war on terror".
Prison Ships
Another relevant quote from the article suggested the motive from the US might have been motivated by increased involvement of other countries in the council.
"Several observers mentioned Washington’s growing discontentment with the influence of the Islamic and African countries in the Council."
This just shows the typical foreign policy of an inept ruling government that chooses to withdraw from talks or promote human rights and instead chooses to abandon negotiations with other governments if they have any differing opinions. To me it is a symptom of an illness that our current administration is under the false notion that talking with your enemies is appeasement. It shows weakness to criticize other governments rashly and then ignore their concerns for our issues.
Our current administration would fail kindergarten because they would not know how to "play nice with others". There is no sense of cooperation or a willingness to ignore differences in order to work toward a mutual goal. My only hope is that the next administration can salvage our democracy and bring us towards a world where common problems will be dealt with in a mature manner. That is what will make us the world leader that we once were instead of just a superpower bully.