PFFFT HAHAHAHA

The us? adhere to a rules-based order? That's fuckin rich. No, the US will have to be dragged kicking and screaming into the light like germany in the 40s one of these days.

Ah but it is rules-based. The rule is that the US gets to do whatever it wants. And if other countries don't do what the US wants, then the US gets to punish them.

USian here, it's a common misconception. It's actually the "Our rules-based international order". Perhaps unsurprisingly, our rules say that the 1st world can practice unlimited plunder on the 3rd world as long as we're mostly not too open about doing it (This part is becoming obsolete). The rules also state that any country defending itself from us is an aggressive rogue terrorist state that has opened itself up to unlimited saturation self defense, followed by plunder, by virtue of breaking the rules.

If someone notices the obvious mafia-like structure of these rules and say, tries to take it up with the ICC, the rules also say we will invade the Hague.

Notice the gradual shift from an international order based on international law to the current "rules-based" international order that has happened during the last 2 decades? The ICJ is an arbiter of international law while the rules-based order is based on arbitrary rules made by the US and mostly NATO allies not necessarily related to international law. This shift was designed for situations like this where adherence to these arbitrary rules can be used to override/ignore international law. So when the highest court in the world when it comes to international law rules that the case brought by SA has clear merit, the US can punish SA for bringing the case in the first place and pretend that's by the rules.