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TechnoratiRetired General Antonio Taguba, the officer who led the Army's investigation into Abu Ghraib, recently wrote in the preface to the new report, Broken laws, Broken Lives:
"There is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account."
Should those who ordered war crimes be held to account? With the conclusion of the Bush regime approaching, many people are dubious, even those horrified by Administration actions. They fear a long, divisive ordeal that could tear the country apart. They note that such division could make it far harder for the country to address the many other crises it is facing. They see the upcoming elections as a better way to set the country on a new path.
Many Democrats in particular are proposing to let bygones be bygones and move on to confront the problems of the future, rather than dwelling on the past. The Democratic leadership sees rising gas prices, foreclosures, and health care costs, as well as widespread dissatisfaction with the direction of the country, as playing in their favor. Why risk it all by playing the war crimes blame game? Perhaps some Democratic leaders are also concerned that their own role in enabling or even encouraging war crimes might be exposed.
Meanwhile, the evidence confirming not only a deliberate policy of torture, but of conspiring in an illegal war of aggression and conducting a criminal occupation, continues to pile ever higher. Bush's own press secretary Scott McClelland has revealed in his book, What Happened, how deliberately the public was misled to foment the attack on Iraq. Philippe Sands' new book, Torture Team, has shown how the top legal and political leadership fought for a policy of torture--circumventing and misleading top military officials to do so. Jane Mayer's The Dark Side, reveals that a secret report by the Red Cross--given to the CIA and shared with President Bush and Condoleezza Rice--found that US interrogation methods are "categorically" torture and that the "abuse constituted war crimes, placing the highest officials in the US government in jeopardy of being prosecuted."
Despite the reluctance to open what many see as a can of worms, there are fresh moves on many fronts to hold top US officials accountable for war crimes.
Courts: US courts have issued a barrage of decisions against the Administration's claim that they can do anything and still be within the law. The Supreme Court ruled June 12 that the Administration cannot deny habeas corpus rights to Guantánamo detainees. The DC Circuit Court of Appeals on June 30 overturned the Pentagon's enemy combatant designation of a Chinese Muslim held in Guantánamo for the last six years. A Maine jury in April acquitted the Bangor Six of criminal trespass charges stemming from protesters' claim that the "Constitution was being violated by the Bush Administration's involvement in Iraq."
Congressional investigation: Rep. John Conyers has recently brought top policy-makers, including former Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo, Vice President Cheney's Chief of Staff David Addington, and this week former Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith and former Attorney General John Ashcroft before a House Judiciary subcommittee and grilled them on their role crafting the Administration's torture policy.
Senate hearings in June revealed that treatment of Guantánamo captives was modeled on techniques allegedly used by Communist China to force false confessions from US soldiers.
Impeachment: Despite Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi's instruction to keep impeachment "off the table," Rep. Dennis Kucinich for the first time brought an impeachment resolution to the House floor that incorporated a devastating, thirty-five article indictment spelling out Bush Administration war crimes and crimes against the Constitution. Now Rep. Conyers has announced that the Judiciary Committee will hold hearings on the charges July 25. Even after the Bush Administration leaves office, the judges it appointed who appear complicit in war crimes--notably torture policy architect Judge Jay S. Bybee--could still be impeached.
Truth commission: In response to General Taguba's accusations, New York Times Op-Ed columnist Nicholas D. Kristof has just called for the establishment of a truth commission--like that of post-Apartheid South Africa--with subpoena power to investigate the abuses in the aftermath of 9/11 and "lead a process of soul searching and national cleansing."
International: In May, Vanity Fair magazine published an article by British human rights attorney Philippe Sands, in which he described the reasons Administration lawyers face a real risk of criminal investigations if they stray beyond US borders. The British parliament is about to launch an investigation of Washington's lying to the British government about its use of its facilities for "extraordinary rendition." Constitutional lawyer Jonathan Turley recently said, "I think it might in fact be time for the United States to be held internationally to a tribunal. I never thought in my lifetime I would say that." Colin Powell's former chief of staff Lawrence Wilkerson publicly advised Feith, Addington, And Albert Gonzales "never to travel outside the U.S., except perhaps to Saudi Arabia and Israel."
Prosecution: According to a recent Mellman Group survey commissioned by the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans of all political stripes overwhelmingly support the appointment of an independent prosecutor to investigate both the destruction of the CIA's interrogation tapes and the possible use of torture by the agency. Every segment of the electorate--including majorities of Democrats (82 percent), independents (62 percent), and Republicans (51 percent) -- want to hold this administration accountable for its role in the destruction of the torture tapes.
Vincent Bugliosi, the former Los Angeles County Prosecutor who has won twenty-one convictions in murder trials, including Charles Manson's, has just published The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder, which argues that there is overwhelming evidence President Bush took the nation to war in Iraq under false pretenses and must be prosecuted for the consequent deaths of over 4,000 US soldiers.
Dean Lawrence Velvel of the Massachusetts School of Law at Andover is planning a September conference to map out war crimes prosecutions against President Bush and other administration officials. Velvel says that "plans will be laid and necessary organizational structures set up, to pursue the guilty as long as necessary and, if need be, to the ends of the Earth." Reps. John Conyers, Jerrold Nadler, and Bill Delahunt have called on Attorney General Michael Mukasey to appoint a special counsel to investigate the rendition of Canadian citizen Maher Arar to Syria.
Citizen action: Voters in Brattleboro and Marlboro, Vermont this spring approved a measure that instructs police to arrest President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for "crimes against our Constitution," should they venture into those precincts.
All these developments suggest approaches that might be used to hold Bush Administration war criminals accountable. Establishing accountability for US war crimes in the Iraq war era is the sine qua non for initiating a new era on different principles. Here are nine reasons why we must not let bygones be bygones:
1. World peace cannot be achieved without human rights and accountability.
According to Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, chief American prosecutor at the Nuremberg Tribunals, "The ultimate step in avoiding periodic wars, which are inevitable in a system of international lawlessness, is to make statesmen responsible to law." Moving in that direction will be impossible unless such responsibility applies to the statesmen of the world's most powerful countries, and above all the world's sole superpower. US support for the war crimes charges like those just brought by the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court against Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir will represent little more than hypocrisy if US Presidents are not held to the same standard.
2. The rule of law is central to our democracy.
Most Americans believe that even the highest officials are bound by law. If we send mentally-disabled juveniles to prison as adults, but let government officials who authorize torture and launch illegal wars go scot-free, we destroy the very basis of the rule of law.
3. We must not allow precedents to be set that promote war crimes.
Executive action unchallenged by Congress changes the way our law is interpreted. According to Robert Borosage, writing for Huffington Post, "If Bush's extreme assertions of power are not challenged by the Congress, they end up not simply creating new law, they could end up rewriting the Constitution itself."
4. We must restore the principles of democracy to our government.
The claim that the President, as commander-in-chief, can exercise the unlimited powers of a king or dictator strikes at the very heart of our democracy. As Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson put it, we, as citizens, would "submit ourselves to rules only if under rules." Countries like Chile can attest that the restoration of democracy and the rule of law requires more than voting a new party into office--it requires a rejection of impunity for the criminal acts of government officials.
5. We must forestall an imperialist resurgence.
When they are out of office, the advocates of imperial expansion and global domination have proven brilliant at lying in wait to undermine and destroy their opponents.
They did it to destroy the presidencies of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. They'll do it again to an Obama Administration unless their machinations are exposed and discredited first.
6. We must have national consensus on the real reasons for the Bush Administration's failures.
Republicans are preparing to dominate future decades of American politics by blaming the failure of the Iraq war on those who "sent a signal" that the US would not "stay the course" whatever the cost. Establishing the real reasons for the failure of the US in Iraq--the criminal and anti-democratic character of the war--is the necessary condition for defeating that effort.
7. We must restore America's damaged reputation abroad.
The world has watched as the United States--the self-proclaimed steward of democracy--has systematically broken the letter and spirit of its Constitution, violated international treaties, and ignored basic moral tenets of humanity. As former Navy General Counsel Alberto Mora recently pointed out to the Senate Armed Services Committee, our nation's "policy of cruelty" has violated our "overarching foreign policy interests and our national security." To establish international legitimacy, we must demonstrate that we are capable of holding our leaders to account.
8. We must lay the basis for major change in US foreign policy.
Real security in the era of global warming and nuclear proliferation must be based on international cooperation. But genuine cooperation requires that the US entirely repudiate the course of the past eight years. The American people must understand why international cooperation rather than pursuit of global domination is necessary to their own security. And other countries must be convinced that we really mean it.
9. We must deter future US war crimes.
The specter of more war crimes haunts our future. Rumors continue to circulate about an American or American-backed Israeli attack on Iran. A recently introduced House resolution promoted by AIPAC "demands" that the President initiate what is effectively a blockade against Iran--an act seen by some as tantamount to a declaration of war. Nothing could provide a greater deterrent to such future war crimes than establishing accountability for those of the past.
Holding war criminals accountable will require placing the long-term well-being of our country and the world ahead of short-term political advantage. As Rep. Wexler put it, "We owe it to the American people and history to pursue the wrongdoing of this Administration whether or not it helps us politically or in the next election. Our actions will properly define the Bush Administration in the eyes of history and that is the true test."
Jeremy Brecher is a historian whose books include Strike!, Globalization from Below, and, co-edited with Brendan Smith and Jill Cutler, In the Name of Democracy: American War Crimes in Iraq and Beyond (Metropolitan/Holt). He has received five regional Emmy Awards for his documentary film work. He is a co-founder of WarCrimesWatch.org.
Brendan Smith is a legal analyst whose books include Globalization From Below and, with Brendan Smith and Jill Cutler, of In the Name of Democracy: American War Crimes in Iraq and Beyond (Metropolitan). He is current co-director of Global Labor Strategies and UCLA Law School's Globalization and Labor Standards Project, and has worked previously for Congressman Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and a broad range of unions and grassroots groups. His commentary has appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The Nation, CBS News.com, YahooNews and the Baltimore Sun. Contact him at smithb28@gmail.com.
Copyright © 2008 The Nation
48 Comments so far
Show AllCrimes against humanity?
Give the process 2-5 years. There shall be more revelations ahead...which are likely to make the events already cited - look like kid's stuff. See: Fromthewildernessdotcom
I have to paraphrase this quote, which I relish, yet never committed to memory, I believe it was Oscar Wilde who maintained the idea that to understand you have been fooled is one of life's great meanings.
I know somebody has a Book of Quotes out there...help me out here??
If congress won't impeach the bastards... then citizen patriots might have to show up in washington with buckets of tar and feathers and go old school style on these traitors.
Daniel David: Why the undying devotion to Obama??? Have you not seen yet that he's no better than the rest of the corporate controlled politicians?
"They fear a long, divisive ordeal that could tear the country apart."
Ah, that's so weak. "Let's not uphold the law because it maybe too hard. It's hard to uphold the law."
PATHETIC.
Obama is our only hope of escaping more years of entrenching fascist rule and terrible atrocities under McBush.
"Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
John Maynard Keynes
All of these are excellent postings.
I would hope that someone would consider the possibility that the Bush administration, could set an example for the future and motivate the present to enact legislation that would hopefully make future violations of this type more difficult to accomplish. Of course there are already, but what if this group had never been able to come to power to begin with. I heard once not long ago, by someone I know who knows Mr. G. W. Bush from his Texas business days that, and I quote: " is that if that little punks name was not Bush, and that "BUSH", he would be an inmate in a Texas state prison, turning sexual favors for cigarettes and candy bars". (This is not an "exact quote", not as 'colorful' as the original, but better for a mixed reading audience)
Human nature being what it is; essentially, corrupt. We cannot hope to use these present criminals as an example for the future simply because of the "nature of the beast"; human nature is corrupt and taking steps to prevent future criminal acts is essential to a better future.
One move might be advisable and that would be to eliminate the corporate presence in the political process. Not that corporate America was involved with so much of the corruption of the Bush years, but if it were not for corporate America Mr. Bush and most of his staff and cabinet would be stuck somewhere else, working jobs they could not possibly have much power to do much harm with.
If they could stay out of jail long enough to keep a job.
None of them could ever be remembered for their originality, much less high intellectual endowment. In fact it appears from the news releases that they indeed are not very intelligent at all. They left so many "tracks in the mud" behind them where they can be connected to these and perhaps many more crimes. With so little integrity within their numbers they all must be worried about the smaller weaker members of their collaborations; who may roll over on them any day now; turn evidence for a shorter sentence.
If it had not been for the short sighted, quick profit, low investment ratio of corporate America's involvement with these people and the offices they helped them attain, none of these situations would have taken place.
Native Son is correct in that the world is watching the United States and it citizens. They realize that the political process can often be corrupted because they themselves have experienced it. Those nations are not as powerful as the United States is except on a collective basis. The United States could set the example for all of the other Democratic Nations, or they have the chance to cover up these misdeeds and allow the world to follow the example: or embarrass the United States and the American People by using this scandalous administration as a negative example for many generations in the future.
Mr. Obama may represent change, he has a wonderful opportunity to change history and essentially take the United States in another direction; but he is already surrounding himself with many of the same type of social parasites that Mr. Bush and his "fools parade" have within their ranks.
The Kings of England would take the severed heads of those who would oppose them and display them on Pikes at the entrance of the Tower of London, as a warning for those who might follow the example of the "headless ones".
The only answer is with the People of the United States, who have the power to take a president who acted like he thought he was a King, punish his misdeeds and crimes, and put the next President on notice. They would not need to severe the head of this "Would be King"; just make a movie or two about his downfall and the corporate giants who bought his favors.
Human beings learn best through trial and error.
The mistake made by the people with the Bush administration is that they had little in their past that could show a "would be king" that he could "loose his head".
If nothing else, it will test human nature with a new challenge: how to beat the anti corruption measures the PEOPLE installed after the "King George" trials.
As for this "Would be King George" life in prison would be far worse than having his head on display at the end of a pike; even at the entrance of the Lincoln Memorial.
The public is still ill informed regarding the Bush war crimes. I am currently reading Vincent Bugliosi's "The Prosecution of George W. Bush For Murder". In my 86 years I have never seen an author, writing a well documented, well foot-noted book, so angry and so morally indignant. I would suggest that we all read Mr. Bugliosi's text, which, of course, has been ignored by the usual national media, and then purchase another copy for a friend and attempt to circulate this information as wide as possible. Of course the wooden headed conservatives who do not believe in factual information will not be moved.
Excellent article---a sharp summary of the growing call around the world for war crimes trials/impeachment and a clear list of powerful reasons for why and why right now. As one who remembers Nixon/Watergate it is encouraging to recall that once vast opinion like this began to reach mainstream awareness, it was all downhill for the last group of criminal repuglicans....And timid little Obama tries to tip-toe around the dirty elephants in the room. NADER, baby.
DREAM WARRIOR: I followed your long post and agree with it all. Thanks for sharing. In some ways it's cathartic just to do so and know others are right there with you, even if the alleged leaders are occupying their own version of The Twilight Zone.
The article can be summed up in one sentence: We need justice.
-Good luck, as long as Republicans and the enabling Democrats duopolize power there will be no justice. Look forward to one cover up after another, like in: Iran Contra, the S&L debacle, Enron, the Iraq war, torture, domestic spying and currently, the home mortgage swindles and bank bailouts of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
horrified by Administration actions. They fear a long, divisive ordeal that could tear the country apart
-a weak and patheitc argument, if anyone else breaks the law nobody is concerned with long, divisive ordeals, we are supposed to be a nation of laws
Many Democrats in particular are proposing to let bygones be bygones
-a load of crap designed to conceal their complicity
Democratic leaders are also concerned that their own role in enabling
-BINGO!
Rep. John Conyers ...and grilled them
grilled crap, nothing will happen, Democratic-enabled whitewash
...to the House floor that incorporated a devastating, thirty-five article indictment
-don't hold your breath, 11th hour political stunt for saps
Bush's extreme assertions of power are not challenged by the Congress
-of course Democrats won't challenge him, once a Democrat gets in he will enjoy the same imperial powers
We must forestall an imperialist resurgence.
-peace and capitalism are incompatible
We must lay the basis for major change in US foreign policy
-never happen as long as Democrats and Republicans are at the levers of power
"We owe it to the American people and history to pursue the wrongdoing
-pipe dream, a small number of Democrats are calling for this, the Democratic Party as whole will fight tooth and nail against it
The Republicans and Democrats are thoroughly corrupt and criminal enterprises and as long as you keep voting them into office you can expect the same. Those that do not remember the past are doomed to repeat it, over and over again.
One Reason Not To Investigate " My Corporate Sponsor Doesn't Want Me To"
waterboard dumpsterdive u.s olyimpics we need red cross pressure international hearing go after carlyle group ect pentagon papers take it to the street doobie bros neil young ect donation concert for nader dennis gravel paul
Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark, AG during the Kennedy Administration once said 'sunshine is the best disinfectant'. he was promoting the passage of the sunshine laws, which made information gathered, obtained and/or created by government to be made available to the general public.
We ought to prosecute the Bush Administration for committing war crimes because sunshine is the best disinfectant. Evil lurks in darkness, typically in the shadows. We need to bring everything done in our names into the light so that we can be a functional, thriving collective/community.
The Bush Administration and its crimes is like the elephant in the MSM room.
"They fear a long, divisive ordeal that could tear the country apart."
This line of thinking is total propaganda - and pure bullshit. I can't think of anything that would unite this country - and us with the world - more than moving forward with holding these criminals accountable. The whole world is sick to death of neocons and all the damage they have caused. The world's people want peace and democracy, but with the Washington neocons, we only get war and fascism.
there are those for whom "airing the dirty laundry" of impeachment is an affront, an embarrassment, a shame - how will we be able to hold our heads up when the world sees that the truth is so at odds with the version we'd prefer it sees? then there are others who revel in the mighty being brought low, the abusers getting a taste of their own medicine, and who understand that it is at least partially a validation, not a repudiation of our system of justice. whatever "cumuppance" clinton received for his shenanigans, he brought it on himself, and he deserved to squirt.....i mean squirm. but if there is anything like legal precedent which governs our judicial system, when the shoe is on the other foot, the calls for moving on ring more than hollow - they reek with hypocricy and arrogance and defile the very concept of the rule of law.
since 9/11 when something just didnt seem "right" in the version of events that came from official channels.... to the reasons for the war in iraq... to how NOTHING was done when the country realized that we were misled and lied to... and on and on the list goes... we watch congress institute laws that go against the constitution.... we watch the president sign one executive order after presidential directive that makes it seem as if the US is no longer the land of the free and home of the brave... but something right out of the pages of orwells 1984... and time and again... those that we put in "power" to do right by the american ppl have stood by and done nothing... and other then some clamoring and angry rhetoric from ppl... we the ppl havent done much in the way of getting to the truth of things...
and now we have an opportunity to do so... and ppl are calling to let bygones be bygones?
seriously?
if thats the case then why not let out the manson follower from the california prison she is in because she is dying from brain cancer and has less then 6 mons to live?
why not let EVERYONE get a "get out of jail free" card... a "do-over" so to speak...
i think that more needs to be emphasized on not only the "what" they have already done... but the precedence this sets for future leaders to come.... the mentality of .... "well bush got away with it.... why cant i"?
this can NEVER be allowed to happen in our country.... ever again!
when more of the nation is leaning towards registering independent and we're all just "fatigued" from this hatfield and mccoy like feud betweens rep/dems thats pretty much just staged for our benefit... because they are all of the same ilk bought and paid for by the same lobbyists...
when we see laws passed by this administration that has done more harm towards its own citizens... (ahhhh wouldnt mccarthy be proud) and when we've done even more harm by allowing so many cover ups and so much secrecy that there are now more conspiracy theories about 9 11 then even the kennedy assassination... we have set a precedent...
several of them for a matter of fact...
we've set the precedent that if we are at war... that the president can do what ever he/she wants and get away with it since its all in the pursuit of national security...
some even go so far as to argue... that if we hold our leaders accountable in a criminal way... that it ties the hands of future leaders to come... and i have to say... then maybe thats not such a bad thing... when we've seen what a free reign of total authority ... lack of respect for those that they had a duty to protect and the laws that they swore to uphold... then maybe there should be some shackling of a run away ruler!
when we have so many vague innuendos about involvement or deceit regarding one of the greatest tragedies that hit this nation since pearl harbor... we're in jeopardy of losing confidence in the belief of our own greatness that has bolstered every amercian in the last century...
today when someone says that america is the greatest country in the world....and someone comes back with a why? the person is hard pressed to answer truthfully and if they are a true "patriot" they will go back to old and tried platitudes of what ONCE made us such a great nation.... that ONCE we were a beacon to the world that stood for truth and integrity!!! but if we do nothing now... when we have an opportunity... all of that is a lie and we'll never recover from it!
how arrogant of us to not accept and fully embrace the responsibility that comes with being an american.... because we voluntarily took the role of leaders and champions of justice in the world... we once boasted of how much the world "needed" us... and now we want to forsake that responsibility because it would be too "embarrassing" to reveal to the world that we made some massive mistakes in judgment?
so what do we do now?
do we allow a duplicitous congress to sweep the events of the last 8 years under the rug in the hopes that their own involvement isnt ferreted out?
do we allow the loss of faith in american justice and integrity to forever take this black mark.... both at home and abroad?
does this show us to be weak and incompetent for allowing a double standard of holding international war criminals and human rights violators accountable... yet we dont demand the same accountability of our own? and would this then open the door to more (?) attacks against us because of this double standard?
if mccain wins.... will this give him cart blanche to go nutz and use the laws that bush put into affect which makes the president pretty much a dictator and start incarcerating amercian citizens if they oppose his want and desire to perpetuate the war machine by "staying the course" even if that course leads us to a 100 year occupation? or to declare war against any other middle eastern country that we covet for oil and other resources? will we then leave the middle east and start after other nations for the same reasons?
if obama wins… will this allow him to unveil his real purpose for wanting a national security force that equals our military in size and expenditure? and I can only imagine that these purposes wouldn't be healthy for the freedoms of the average citizen if you take into account … all the laws that bush has put into place!
will the global community some day feel as if we're the threat and not some nameless faceless "terrorist" and act accordingly?
when bushco starts behaving like the "godfather" in relation to the middle east and its own people… don't we have a legal and moral obligation to say to him and anyone else that comes behind him… that though we may have been asleep at the wheel for a time… and forgot that we as citizens must be ever watchful over our leaders to make sure that they represent what we truly want and need and if they overstep their boundaries… that its our job to put them back in line … that we wont forsake this task?
what does being and american citizen truly mean? simply that we pay our taxes and we have a right to be in this country by either birth or naturalization? thats it? we have no other description that makes us citizens?
if we let one man/woman go free that we suspect of great crimes against humanity and crimes against the very country that allowed this man to get away with so much… aren't we … every single one of us… aren't we then all guilty of malfeasance after the fact?
if we walk away from this responsibility of holding our leaders accountable for their actions … if we do not demand the truth and ensure that no leader will again do harm against its own people or against any other national of the world… aren't we just as guilty of shirking our responsibilities as those that we are pointing fingers at?
i say.... let the truth be known... out in the open for the country... the world to see... let us remember that our laws state "innocent until proven guilty" and truly allow justice to be blind... let the dice role and sentence those accordingly to the rule of the american people... and if congress wont do it... then WE THE POEPLE.... are not just encouraged but obligated to do so as stated in the declaration of independence and for the preservation of the constitution of the US of A and the integrity of every citizen of this country!
sorry... but just having them on "house" arrest is not enough... its like capone when he was jailed for tax evasion… he was certainly in "jail" but he was not really being punished... for he had all the luxuries that would have been afforded him as a free man… how is that punishment?
take the case of the young man that has recently received a lot of media attention ... and his name escapes me at the moment... the canadian boy that was put in gitmo when he was 15 and detained because of the "murder" of an american soldier... during times of war... isnt that considered a causality of war?
and what are the ramifications of THIS precedence... because he was fighting against a soldier and killed him... we are calling it murder for the purpose of what… permission to torture? to appear sympathetic in the eyes of the world some how?
if we are judged in a world arena as guilty of fighting in an illegal war... and every man and woman that went overseas and killed a human being... then do we charged 100's of thousands of soldiers with murder? does this then give free reign to anyone that can capture a us soldier and charge him/her with murder? or if a US citizen is captured abroad… can they be tortured for "information" without impunity because our leaders were afforded the same luxury and came out unscathed?
setting the precedent of double standards... we can justify it all we want to... but at the end of the day its very dangerous stuff!
or maybe we can play the card of... well we trusted the president and didnt know better... think we can really get away with playing the scapegoat game? do we even WANT to? and if we are not mindful of what our leaders do... where do we hold a role in this need for accountability and responsibility?
so many whispers and rumors of deceit and out right wrong doing... that will shadow this country for centuries to come... because if one got away with it... how many that follow will try and be even more successful?
the time for restoring faith in the american way of life has been coming for some time now... here... is where history will judge every citizen of this country in what we allowed our congress to do and not to do... and if they dont do the job we appointed to them... then we take a page out of vermonts book and do the job ourselves!
either way .... as unpleasant as it is... it must be done if faith in the american justice system will ever be restored!
imagine criminals using these precedences in courts of law all over the country... if we allow some to escape the consequences of breaking these laws... and without those that are willing to uphold them without prejudice... then chaos and anarchy will rule for a time... until ppl get sick of it... and restore order! once we cross that line of willing culpability through inaction and silence... we become hypocrites of the highest order!
i argued for some time about the use of torture... and ppl said because we were in the right that we were justified... and it horrified me that anyone could think that way... for the moment we stoop to "their" level... we have no moral high ground and are no better!
we cannot allow this american double standard to go on anymore... the world wont stand for it! and neither should we!
and if we do... where will that leave us... alone? the US against the world?
or will some country think that we the citizens are being held hostage in fear of a rouge "regime" thats subverting our constitution and doing harm against its own ppl and come to liberate us... is that what we really want?
Just like post-war Germany became a better country after all the Nazi war criminals were brought to justice, the US can come out of this Dark Chapter in its history, "smelling like a rose" if it takes the brave, necessary steps to do likewise.
It all sounds good, but stop to think what the Republicans have done with the impeachment process. They impeached Clinton for lying about a blowjob from an intern, for God's sake! They made impeachment a joke, a political vendetta. When something serious goes down, like the many atrocities of this administration, the tool for dealing with it, impeachment, has been made into a joke.
Don't underestimate these Republicans. They have decided that constitutional democracy is for wussies, not for people serious about achieving and wielding power. The Democrats aren't far behind.
I think that there's a fair bit of nonsense in Brecher and Smith's above article. For example:
"5. We must forestall an imperialist resurgence. - When they are out of office, the advocates of imperial expansion and global domination have proven brilliant at lying in wait to undermine and destroy their opponents. They did it to destroy the presidencies of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. They'll do it again to an Obama Administration unless their machinations are exposed and discredited first."
Uh, No. Blame it on Chomsky, but I know very well that Carter and Clinton are far from heroic and idealistic anti-establishment types. I don't know if any American presidents have not been onboard on the project of American imperialism. (There was an article, and video link, I saw a little while ago, with Samantha Power speaking for Obama - while she officially did that - and using language that others noted was language used by imperialists.)
Civilization can't become civilized when most of us are kept and/or (successfully) encouraged to be ignorant. Brecher and Smith assume that that's the normal state of affairs, apparently. The authors have to be challenged to either lose the attitude, which attitude automatically calls for us to be skeptical of their prognostications, or else stick with their fantasy that they are champions of genuine democratic representation and expect to get resistance and ridicule from folks who want straight talk and who are tired of babbling from a powerful Right that knows it doesn't have to talk sensibly to us as long as it can do what it wants.
I mean, Good luck with the effort to bring powerful players to justice. I'd love to see it. But I'm not inspired by people who talk about some bad rulers and how we need to punish them for their crimes while exonerating other bad rulers, just because they happen to share their political ideology.
Gosh! Those of us who have paid 'minimal' attention know that Republicans and Democrats are two sides of the same coin and share an elite, negative view of democracy.
pleasethink good list- important to remember the crimes of old bush and clinton- but how come nobody ever talks about Afghanistan? There never was any reason to murder that pitiful country-
"bombing the bombed and killing the killed" as Eduardo Galeano put it. Even if you follow the twisted logic that Osama or al-Qaeda must have done it, and they could still be in Afghanistan waiting for bombs to fall on their heads, It's still no excuse to do what they did- all those poor Afghans internally displaced and hungry getting bombed- cluster bombs and daisy cutters.
Osama and Taliban and al-Qaeda were all thought up, organized and trained by the U.S.- Ziggy and Carter and mostly the CIA. so if they did it, those are the guys who should be getting bombed. It's called "blowback" you idiots, deal with it.
In all likelihood, the ENTIRE Bush administration will get a walk.
Pardons for all, no matter WHO is President.
And Bush already has his hideout in Paraguay, which, BTW has no extradition treaty with the US...
'Back to US politics and Afghanistan. This is not the "good" war. It is just as wrong as the US adventure in Iraq. Likewise, it can not be won, no matter what the politicians and the generals say. The government put in Kabul by Washington is comparable to a new branch head of a multinational corporation. Its power is dependent on the whim of corporate headquarters and will never garner the support of those not on its payroll. There are clearly human rights being abused in Afghanistan, but those abuses are committed as much by the occupying forces as they are by the forces opposed to the occupier. The solution to Afghanistan begins, just like in Iraq, with the unconditional and immediate withdrawal of the US military.'
http://www.counterpunch.com/jacobs07192008.html
Mr. Obama is supporting the continuation of this stupidity. I gulibility of the American people is stagering.
Why can't you understand that nothing substantial will change will Mr. Obama as president?
He is an imperialist, too.
He will continue to fight a loosing and unnecessary war in Afganistan.
He will maintain the status quo.
starofthesea,
For us lesser lights, it would have been helpful if you had mentioned "what" exactly the "something new" was that you learned from little brother's post. He did use paragraph breaks (as he recommended to others), but otherwise expounded on a wish for political reform, ending (correctly) with "Don't hold your breath" ('cause none of the thoughts he mentioned are coming to fruition any time soon in a real world.)
If we would like to be making American policy toward a "longer view", it would help if we could merely start by electing a leader who believes in a longer view. One such is running, thankfully. His name is Obama.
As I recall, it was SS Field Marshall Heinrich Himmer, surely the worst war criminal in mankind's grim history, who suggest to the leader of the World Jewish Council, in late May of 1945, that it was time to let bygones be bygones and put the past behind them ... in order to promote universal reconciliation, botherly love and to keep Himmler's neck from the hangman's noose he'd so monstrously earned.
It's always wise when amnesty for past crimes is proposed, to look into who's doing the proposing and what they stand likely to gain from it.
Everything else is booshwah, grease and verbal camouflage.
America has always been intent on creating an Empire.
From the shores of Tripoli to Iraq.
I completely support impeaching Bush/Cheney (in my fantasy I'd also like to see charges brought against the MSM, the military, Congress, and the Supreme Court), but sadly this author is just another indoctrinated democrat with a vision of history that is partisan (for example the claim that Clinton or Carter didn't practice imperialism) and myopic. The wars we have now, like the wars of the past, are crimes committed with bipartisan approval.
Little Brother--terrific post as always. I now look for your commentary as I always learn something new. Thanks!
Ugh, only nine, and in my humble opinion, that address nothing but the window dressing. There doesn't appear to be one meaningful structural change listed.
How about the reduction of all corporate behavior to the will of the people?
How about the control of the "commons" being returned to the people?
How about the complete nationalization of all natural resources since the people have paid for all the infrastructure through the manipulation of taxes?
How about single payer health care because we have already paid for all of the high tech medical equipment through all the high prices caused by "insurance." If the medical community knew there was no insurance scam, prices would drop precipitously.
How about the complete revocation of all the unconstitutional laws passed by the pukes who claim, by birthright you would think, to be our representatives whose "opinions" are of more import than the poor fools who elected them.
Now there is a structural problem that needs to be addressed.
One aspect of globalization unanticipated by Bush/Cheney et alia, is the spectre of international prosecution keeping war criminals from going abroad.
Call it a globalized outlook?
If war crimes trials occur... in fact the prosecution of corrupt leaders anywhere for war crimes they commit... it almost takes all the fun out of being king or dictator.
Are we still human? Do deaths in great number get excused when a single murder is prosecutable?
If Gonzales or Feith et al, were effectively placed under 'national house arrest' (they were afraid to travel) that alone would begin to chip away at the immunity of the officers of the king...
In any case... I say they deserve a trial first!
I do not know if any of you got a chance to see the House Judiciary Committee challenge Douglas Feith on torture policy. It was absolutely hilarious to see Feith, an appointed Professor at Georgetown University and fellow at Harvard whine and cry because a General (I forget his name) called him a war criminal and member of the Likud Party. He was pouting and throwing a tantrum like a toddler because someone called him names (that were very appropriate). On top of that, it was fun to watch the Democrats drill holes in his argument basically advocating torture. I not only found the session informative, but also quite entertaining. But it will be more entertaining and exhiliarating to see him led away in handcuffs to jail for war crimes.
From the Gospel of Philip (Not part of the bible as we know it)
As long as the root of evil is hidden, it is strong. But if it becomes known it dissolves. If you ignore it , it takes root in you and brings forth its fruit in your heart. It takes you captive so that you do the things you don't want to do and don't do the things you want to do. It exerts this power because you haven't recognized it.
A society that ignores war crimes, tortures, criminality and just pretends it does not happen, like an individual, will sicken.
Our recognizing these wrongs is helpful. What we must not do is tire of pointing out why they are wrong and that they do occur or they will become ingrained into society.
The best reason to investigate war crimes now is I can't see one reason to wait.
Pleasethink, you got it right, but proceedings have to be feasible and applicable. Let's start with Bush-Cheney, Woo, Feith and Ashcroft etc - without forgetting Negroponte and all the other specialists in the back seats.Grave and unusual crimes have been committed in such number that the real danger is the mind being unable to globally interlink, comprehend or retain them as significant facts in memory (And that, of course, is what they want).That is why impeachment or indictment before the ICC on some particularly heinous points is the right way to proceed.Legal action against overweening power is the contemporary form of dadaism, and the strict application of the RULE OF LAW that of today's surrealists...it is time 'to strike the monster with the harpoon of the sun'...the monster in our own back yard, that is.
Dixie, "dysfunctional family" is an excellent way to look at this! When you recall that Bush, the Dry Drunk, is our fearless leader; then it is certainly logical to say that we are all "the enablers".
Thanks, Dixie, your analagy is right on.
There is a tenth reason to investigate war crimes and punish criminals.
Psychologists will tell you that a family that has secrets that are covered up causes disfunction in the family. If Uncle Bob has been molesting his young neices and/or his own children and the family knows it but refuses to look at the problem ,the whole family becomes psychologocally sick and the sickness is manifested in various ways.
Our nation is like a sick disfunctional family. We all know what has happened and yet we choose to look the other way. We deplore it to each other, but we do nothing to stop it or to make sure the sick perpetrators are prevented from continuing their sick behavior. Nancy Pelosi, I'm sorry to say (I do like her stance in other areas) is a major culprit in this area. She is like a mother who knows the father is abusing her children, but does nothing about it, thus enabling the behavior. She doesn't "get it" and we, as members of the American family, need to speak out en masse and tell her and other powerful members of our "family" that this will not do.
We also need to let Obama know, if he becomes president, and thus head of the "family" of America that we must not cover up our disfunctional behavior or it will continue into future generations. It is time to bring America's family secrets out in the open! Without that we cannot heal.
pleasethink - I liked Fisk's easy to read tome so much that I bought two copies after returning the library's book. One for a friend and another to keep on my desk like my own personal 'Cassandra' to watch America follow in the footsteps of previous mis- adventurors.
That book works equally well to follow our predestined catastrophy in Iraq or Afghanistan.
And now the discussion is going in the direction that it needs to go: accountability - confession - repudiation. Restoration of: truth - integrity - justice - rule of law - moral fiber - "sacred honor".
Until and unless we re-establish these tenets we, as a people, are and continue to be complicit in the crimes of our leaders. We must stand up and demand sunshine on these issues and bring the perpetrators of evil to justice. If we do not, we will never again be free.
Thanks for the great article.
Important article, though chances that politicians will investigate themselves are slim.
However, Vincent Bugliosi in his book "The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder" tells us that there is no statute of limitations for murder. That any DA can prosecute Bush and his cronies at any time before or after their reign of terror. It happened to Pinochet.
It may be more difficult to indict Reagan, Bush the First and Clinton for their murders, but I think the people will settle for indicting our present POTUS and his cronies for their atrocities. Justice will be served and precedents established for any successor to note.
For this to succeed, these criminals must not be given presidential pardons. Pardoning Nixon was a huge mistake. Had he been treated like any other criminal, the crimes of his successors may have been deterred.
If and when Bush is impeached and indicted, we must press Obama not to grant him a pardon. (A useless plea in a McCain administration). Otherwise, the whole exhausting and expensive procedure will have been for nothing, the executive abuse of power and the shredding of our consitution would continue.
"When they are out of office, the advocates of imperial expansion and global domination have proven brilliant at lying in wait to undermine and destroy their opponents.
They did it to destroy the presidencies of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. They'll do it again to an Obama Administration unless their machinations are exposed and discredited first."
Very true. And this scum came right back to occupy high offices during the present administration.
Holding war criminals accountable will require placing the long-term well-being of our country and the world ahead of short-term political advantage.
______________________________________________
I concur with NativeSon (and respectfully suggest the use of paragraph breaks for improved ease of reading).
One of the Achilles' Heels on the Amerikan millipede is this nation's tragic obsession with "short-term political advantage", and utter unwillingness or inability to address long-term well-being. The political process has become warped and corrupted by wealth, and the servants of Mammon include our entrenched class of professional political elites. The remnants of principle have been scoured away by the twin cataracts of illicit moneyed interests expending staggering sums investing in politicians to promote their venal interests, and innocent blood spilled in the course of bipartisan-approved imperialist military might.
Ironically, and paradoxically, those who argue for "working within the system", and insist that the ONLY responsible action is to support the least evil candidate to incrementally reform the conjoined monsters that comprise the duopoly, are fond of criticizing dissenters for being unrealistic and expecting wholesale positive change to occur by defying the odds and voting (or not-voting) outside the Party of Judas and the Party of Cain.
They affect to be wiser, more mature, and simply more "realistic" by subscribing to the doctrine that the true and correct path to change and long-term well-being must be accomplished by abandoning the concept of voting as an act of personal conscience in favor of the grownup notion that voting is actually an abstract social collective action-- what the lexicon of managing baseball games calls "the percentage play".
I characterize this perspective as ironic and paradoxical because the percentage-play strategy aspires to effect long-term (positive) change by taking one short-term political advantage at a time. Naturally, every candidate will pay lip service to the virtue of long-term well-being, and to a greater or lesser extent assert that "long-term well-being" is what the candidate is all ABOUT. (Come to think of it, "long-term well-being" is practically synonymous with "progressive".)
Invariably, the party which gains short-term political advantage either openly abuses and perverts power, or begins going sideways immediately with well-worn, iron-clad rationalizations about "picking one's battles", "not wasting political capital", and of course holding off until the NEXT term before attempting anything too risky or potentially unpopular. This is still perceived as "making progress" by true believers, even if these baby steps are mostly side-to-side zig-zags, pirouettes, or wobbly circles.
In summary, I see a direct relationship between the federal government's inability or unwillingness to significantly address long-term well-being in our foreign policy and a domestic political process addicted and confined to gaining short-term political advantage. Only if our domestic political process is reformed will it begin to be possible to take a longer view, and accordingly develop enlightened policies. Don't hold your breath...
A very well documented and argued article.
The USA has throughout its entire history waged a war against reason. Most Americans having been indoctrinated in the propaganda so popular and lingering that no matter how low the USA can steep, there are large members of the population that ignore the facts in favor of the fiction.
Earlier this month, on the "4th", on countless venues or pages we had one or another person retelling the story of the "founding fathers", and the "struggle for independence" ; the wars to bring "democracy" and "freedom" to others, and support the troops : "even if you don't support the war". All the while the USA is committing crimes against humanity on a scale that would have been unimaginable a mere twenty years ago.
Supporting the troops, while they are engaged in an illegal war is the same as supporting the mass murderers of other conflicts such as Africa has recently suffered: were those tribal members not killing members of other tribes, for the same reasons the USA is killing? Money, Politics, ideology, even religion are the reasons and there is little or no end in sight until the "world leaders", the nations such as the USA who set themselves up as an example for others bring themselves to justice. When the movie stars lament the plight of the poor people in Darfur and ignore the destruction and death that the USA is engaged in they loose any credibility . When the schools teach the pledge of allegiance to little children they teach a mass lie.
When the USA complains about the human rights violations of other nations and commits international war crimes they live a lie. An illegal war is a war crime: any war that is not one of defense, is one of aggression and therefore illegal. It really is that simple.
If the USA ever had any reputation of a just and exemplary nation it has only been in the minds of the people who believe the propaganda, and teach it tho their children, who teach it to theirs.
If however the USA truly wants to rise to the level of the "Best Example" for the world they now have a wonderful chance.
The USA can without a doubt rise to such a level simply by stating to the world that there will not ever be a war of aggression that the USA will be involved in; and then move to punish the offenders of this "the last one" to the fullest extent of the Law---which are already in effect.
When Justice Brown of the Nuremberg Tribunals made the statement that "we now had ourselves a bitter chalice" he referred to the USA, and the necessity of disavowing wars of aggression.
Build a prison in the USA specifically for the convicted international criminals who have perpetrated these latest crimes against humanity. Start from the top, and work down to the lowest. The top convicts should receive the harshest punishments, LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE --THE DEATH SENTENCE IS ONLY AN ESCAPE FROM RESPONSIBILITY FOR THOSE WHO CREATE SO MUCH DEATH. Lesser sentences for the lower participants. To be more effective the vast fortunes of the top leaders such as Bush and Cheney, Powell, Rice, all of them should be confiscated, denied to their heirs, and distributed to the survivors of these latest international crimes. This would set the example that the USA claims to possess. And would be a beacon of integrity for the world to recognize
Only then could the USA ever set itself up as an example for the world, but what a shining example they would be for the rest of time.
History in the information age will not be kind to the USA unless they follow through with their own rhetorical language with clear action for the future generations to use as a positive example.
This would be a first for America. They have no decent reputation for honoring their treaties or agreements. They move around the world and create death and destruction for their enemies as well as their allies. They hold deep friendships with only those who are like them; and they live in fear that those "friends will turn on them" and those "friends" feel the same about the USA.
The world cannot tolerate the USA much longer and still expect to survive themselves unless the USA set the example once and for all. No more illegal wars. No more meddling in the affairs of other nations. No more tolerance for revisionist history being taught; teach the truth so that the mistakes of the past are not repeated. All great empires fall---and all of them have fallen from within from their own corruption.
THE USA CANNOT HOPE TO LAST MUCH LONGER UNDER THE PRESENT APPROACH: AND THE PRESENT APPROACH IF NOT CHANGED IMMEDIATELY WILL DOOM THE USA TO FAILURE.
I am just about done with Robert Fisk's Great War for Civilization, one of the best books I have ever read, essential for gaining a perspective on recent US history in the Middle East. It has become clear to me from this book that if administrations are prosecuted for war crimes, it should include the first Bush admin for allowing Iraqi Shia and Kurds to be slaughtered after the first Gulf War; burying Iraqi soldiers alive during that war; the Clinton administration sanctions that only served to kill millions of Iraqis (along with persistent bombing of Iraq), the use of cluster bombs against civilians during Shock and Awe, the occupation of Iraq without protecting civilians or infrastructure, and the use of depleted uranium shells in both Iraq wars that are causing widespread, strange cancers in Iraqis of all ages (associated with Gulf War syndrome in the US).
With Congressional passage of the Gleichschaltung (USAPATRIOT ACT) and the Ermächtigungsgesetz (Military Commissions Act), America's downfall was assured.
As far as I can tell all three branches of this dictatorship have earned their place on the War Crimes Gallows. But who will Bell these Treasonous Cats?
American will never recover from the Neo-Con Manifesto. Get used to it.
then again, one might state that the whole american people are guilty of war crimes, much like the german civilian population under the nazis...
Good Article-well reasoned and sets the motion going for real accountability for this current CRIMINAL ADMINISTRATION IN POWER.