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Demands for War Crimes Prosecutions Are Now Growing in The Mainstream
For obvious reasons, the most blindly loyal Bush followers of the last eight years are desperate to claim that nobody cares any longer about what happened during the Bush administration, that everyone other than the most fringe, vindictive Bush-haters is eager to put it all behind us, forget about it all and, instead, look to the harmonious, sunny future. That's natural. Those who cheer on shameful and despicable acts always want to encourage everyone to forget what they did, and those who commit crimes naturally seek to dismiss demands for investigations and punishment as nothing more than distractions and vendettas pushed by those who want to wallow in the past.
Surprisingly, though, demands that Bush officials be held accountable for their war crimes are becoming more common in mainstream political discourse, not less so. The mountain of conclusive evidence that has recently emerged directly linking top Bush officials to the worst abuses -- combined with Dick Cheney's brazen, defiant acknowledgment of his role in these crimes (which perfectly tracked Bush's equally defiant 2005 acknowledgment of his illegal eavesdropping programs and his brazen vow to continue them) -- is forcing even the reluctant among us to embrace the necessity of such accountability.
It's almost as though everyone's nose is now being rubbed in all of this: now that the culpability of our highest government officials is no longer hidden, but is increasingly all out in the open, who can still defend the notion that they should remain immune from consequences for their patent lawbreaking? As Law Professor Jonathan Turley said several weeks ago on The Rachel Maddow Show: "It's the indictment of all of us if we walk away from a clear war crime." And this week, Turley pointed out to Keith Olbermann that "ultimately it will depend on citizens, and whether they will remain silent in the face of a crime that has been committed in plain view. . . . It is equally immoral to stand silent in the face of a war crime and do nothing."
That recognition, finally, seems to be spreading -- beyond the handful of blogs, civil liberties organizations and activists who have long been trumpeting the need for this accountability. The New York Times Editorial Page today has a lengthy, scathing decree demanding prosecutions: "It would be irresponsible for the nation and a new administration to ignore what has happened . . . . A prosecutor should be appointed to consider criminal charges against top officials at the Pentagon and others involved in planning the abuse." Today, Politico -- of all places -- is hosting a forum which asks: "Should the DOJ consider prosecuting Bush administration officials for detainee abuse as the NYT and others have urged?" Even Chris Matthews and Chris Hitchens yesterday entertained (albeit incoherently and apologetically) the proposition that top Bush officials committed war crimes.
Perhaps most notably of all -- and illustrating the importance of finally having someone like Rachel Maddow occupy such a prominent place in an establishment media venue -- Democratic Sen. Carl Levin, one of the Senate's most restrained, influential and Serious members, was prodded by Maddow last night into going about as far as someone like him could be expected to go, acknowledging the necessity of appointing a Prosecutor to investigate top Bush officials for the war crimes they committed and to determine if prosecutions are warranted:
To be sure, the political class still desperately wants to avoid meaningful investigations and prosecutions, in no small part because every key component of it -- including the leaders in both parties -- are implicated by so much of it. But as more undeniable evidence emerges of just how warped and criminal and heinous the conduct of our top political leaders has been -- and the more Dick Cheney and comrades resort to openly admitting what they did and proudly defending it, rather than obfuscating it behind euphemisms and secrecy claims -- the more difficult it will be to justify doing nothing meaningful. That is why, even as the desire to forget about the Bush era intensifies with the Promise of Obama ever-more-closely on the horizon, the recognition continues to grow of the need for real accountability.
The weapons used to prevent such accountability are quite familiar and will still be potent. Those who demand accountability will be derided as past-obsessed partisans who want to impede all the Glorious, Transcendent Gifts about to be bestowed on us by our new leaders. The manipulative claim will be endlessly advanced that our problems are too grand and pressing to permit the luxury of living under the rule of law. When all else fails in the stonewalling arsenal, impotent "fact-finding" commissions will be proposed to placate the demand for accountability but which will, in fact, be designed and empowered to achieve only one goal: to render actual prosecutions impossible.
But with these new, unprecedentedly stark revelations, this facade will be increasingly difficult to maintain. It is already the case, as the Times Editorial today notes, that "all but President Bush's most unquestioning supporters [i.e., this] recognized the chain of unprincipled decisions that led to the abuse, torture and death in prisons run by the American military and intelligence services." That leaves only two choices: (1) treat these crimes as the serious war crimes they are by having a Prosecutor investigate and, if warranted, prosecute them, or (2) openly acknowledge -- to ourselves and the world -- that we believe that our leaders are literally entitled to commit war crimes at will, and that we -- but not the rest of the world -- should be exempt from the consequences. The clearer it becomes that those are the only two choices, the more difficult it will be to choose option (2), and either way, there is great benefit just from having that level of clarity and candor about what we are really doing.
- Posted in
46 Comments so far
Show AllAmericans have already chosen option two, openly acknowledging to the world that we consider our leaders exempt from prosecution.
Even with all the evidence against "So?" and "So what" nothing will happen to them. Politicians are not real human beings. They live in another world. to them it is like a monopoly game. They get mad at each other and fight but in the end know it is all a game they know they can replay another time. The rich take care of the rich. In the worst cases, they get sent to country club jails. They'll mumble something about democracy and human rights but in the end there is no punishment for their lies, killing, theft, torture and trashing of people's rights. Who will punish them? Some other rich politician appointed by them or connected to them, bought and paid for by the same people who put Bush and Cheney in office? Put George the Lessor and No Shamey in a zoo and let people throw shoes at them all day. Dream on.
These scum belong in Graford Prison. This prison is almost constantly surrounded by fog and is dark and gloomy inside. Aww fuck, put them in solitary there for about six months then give them a loaded pistol to keep with themselves in their solitary cell. Self imposed capital punishment. Reserved for the best of the best.
http://www.voxclamantis.com/pages/cooder.html
Vox-
I've enjoyed your comments for some time. I didn't know you had a blog. I guess I wasn't paying attention. I can't really say I enjoyed your submission, but it did resonate with me. I have a similar story about a drunken Toby Keith look-alike who whimsically began berating an old Vietnamese woman on a crowded San Diego city bus. I'd share it with you, but you already know how it ends.
p.s.
Now that I think of it, he was probably the actual Toby Keith.
I can say I immensely enjoyed your submission.
-- ekaton, aka d.k.shaw
vox-
I believe you're far and away the finest writer on CD, and when I'm scanning postings, I always stop to read yours. This is isn't the first time I've read something from your blog, and this was yet another compelling piece I'm glad I took the time to read. And while I completely agree that the actions of Cooder are not defensable, I kept thinking while reading your characterization of him that you lacked a certain degree of empathy for his clearly impoverished life.
My wife's a social worker and I'm a nurse, so between the 2 of us we see alot of folks who've slipped through the cracks. And yes, these people often make very poor choices, but we're both acutely aware that for many, their menu of options is deplorable, particularly here in the "richest" nation of earth.
I suspect I say nothing here I'm not pretty sure you agree with, just a little constructive feedback from a fan of your writing.
drift (originally) from Texas...
I thought Vox's piece was very good. A real life comparison between a transient stealing clothes that he probably needed and our government doing the same with Iraq's natural resources in order to enrich the already filthy rich. Cooder probably needed the clothes to keep him somewhat comfortable in the outdoor climate in which he lives. Our "transient" leaders stealing oil from Iraq need it only to fatten their already obese bank accounts and insure that the next 10-15 generations of their heirs live the same comfortable, non-working, non-productive, parasitic ways. Human tapeworms. I would even venture that they have hired help to wipe their children's asses and change their depends till they reach an age where they realize that those around them don't do this (age 21 or so) rather than potty train them.
Aussidawg (from Texas...unlike Bu$h from Connecticut, the pseudocowboy who is afraid of horses, has no cattle of his own on his "ranch", and cannot even wrangle a mountain bike for the 8 second time limit without getting thrown. May he spend his eternal days in Hell clearing brush.)
drift et al - Thanks for the review. My ex-wife has accused me of lacking empathy, which might be true. But I think it's just tunnel vision. I was so busy making my point that I forgot to have sympathy for poor old Cooder, though my subjective view of him at the time was more or less as I described it. By way of mitigating my apparent heartlessness I have written elsewhere about homeless people, undocumented immigrants and even death row prisoners from the standard point of view of the bleeding heart liberal I am. Cooder was actually the product of Reagan's America, when our downtown neighborhood was flooded with desperate transients and section eights chatting with fire hydrants and shrubberies. I remember thinking, as I drove past the daily queue of ragged souls at the blood bank, that this was what they meant by "trickle down."
Sioux Rose
Hello Vox: Just read your poignant piece. I like the way you connect a seemingly small experience in daily life with the larger things we unconsciously consent to. Here's something of a parallel. I'm driving in my car on a long country road and see a hitchhiker. There is a part of me that out of kindness would offer a ride; but due to all the media stories we hear (most factual) about persons who played "good samaritan" only to get stabbed with a knife for it, the reflex to be helpful is placed aside.
We live in a VERY very violent society. There's an estimated 2 billion guns on American streets (and in homes). Unfortunately in this nexus the probability of violence increases, so that the normal human impulse to be helpful is negated by the very real fear of undeserved retaliation.
America didn't become a martial state overnight... there's been a lot of soft propaganda, Hollywood conditioning, sporting events, religious rhetoric that's pumped up the hard muscle of aggression and for a lot of people it remains on red alert.
The fact that YOU learned something from the laundry encounter and can take it the next step, use it as a powerful literary memoir to raise the consciousness of others more than compensates for the jeans. Perhaps the bearer of the lost items would become more conscientious in the future, and that might save his or her life or wallet!
The so called opposition party wouldn't consider impeachment so they aren't about to give anything more than lip service to prosecution of War Crimes. Their actions should make clear to all that there is but one political party in our country. And they aren’t about to investigate their way out of it.
Hoa binh
And so we live in Amerika where people who are victims of or protest against war crimes are arrested and jailed and those who commit them walk free unburdened by conscience or accountability. I fully expect to see Dick Cheney rehabilitated by an adoring media as the elder statesman (a la Nixon) who had a secret plan to find those elusive WMDs but was stymied by the fools around him. What will it take for the people of this country to realize that in order to have what we want, the government must be afraid of us and our power. If millions of us were out in the streets all the time, you can bet we wouldn't be having this conversation. Peoples around the world know this and use their power to create just social and government systems - we here are far behind and I fear we will never catch up. Until Amerkans get rid of their TVs, stop buying everything in sight, get off their collective asses, reconnect with one another to commit to working for what we want, this will never change.
correct. that is why i often said that americans, in comparison with citizens of much poorer countries - regardless of how their countries have turned out and still have poverty problems (often associated with corporate , military influence from amerika -DESPITE the wishes of the people) - have at times removed leaders from power FORCIBLY by outright revolt.
someoen told me a wise observation:
in many other countries -- the governments are AFRAID of the people.
in america the people are AFRAID of the government.
and you see it in their docility. frightened for their security after their hardwork that they THOUGHT they earned not noticing that it's all RIGGED against them..and then they run scared at the "courts" running after them ...and their creditors ...and TOO DISTRACTED by these to even notice they DID NOT EVER HAVE TO BE IN THAT POSITION.
Bushite's main argument: "We kept you safe" (by killing your children and stealing your money).
Even with the Internet, Washington is growing more powerful against the will of the people. Demand will grow alright but as long as people are forced to choose between two parties, Washington will continue to tell the public FUCK YOU ! Hell, 3rd parties have to go through so many stipulations and restrictions just to get on the ballot let alone campaign while the Republicans and Democrats get "free" passes.
That's why it might be easier to take over the Democratic Party than try to get a third paty in office.
Glenn Greenwald said yesterday that Cheney et.al. fear Islamic extremism, but it is hard to find anything these people don't fear. They are afraid to fight for their country; they are afraid of dissenting ideas (from demonstrators here to alternative forms of government anywhere in the world); of accurate vote counts; to tell the truth (Cheney and Bush refusing to appear singly at the 9/11 Commission as a minor example); of anyone else who might tell the truth, hence the purchase of newspaper columnists; of immigrants; of freedom of religion. It's a long list. Their reprehensible behavior is occasioned by the need to control this fear, I think.
Each of the above posts is correct in my view.
Dream on. Bush will pardon everyone in sight (except for the implicit Democrats) and go on his merry way. And just how many Americans are demanding accountability? Most people have something else on their minds. Like their own troubles.
Kathyodat
When the people fear their government there is tyranny,
when the government fears the people there is liberty.
~ Thomas Jefferson
What we need is a movie . . . spelling it all out. Where is Martin Scorcese when you need him. Seriously, the public needs the information laid out like those AIDS quilts.
Hopefully, this is the beginning of an avalanche that ends with the members of the Bush crime family on the dock in a Nuremberg style proceeding (thought the number of accused would be larger). A nice touch would be if Dick Cheney is imprisoned as a result, there is a 24/7 live web cam from his jail cell for all of us to check out and smile.
www.wunderman-comics.com
My subheading for this article:
"...As Well They Should Be"
Okay, I have made my share of sarcastic comments for this article. Now, about those war crimes.
Obama says he will look into whether Bu$h/Cheney commited crimes or just used poor and dumb judgement? Look, both Bu$h and Cheney have admitted time and again to committing crimes and rubbed our noses in it. The evidence is on miles of videoo tape and for many of the crimes, there is not even an investigation needed. These guys and their cohorts (his entire staff) have committed atrocities that would have earned them a space on the gallows trap door 60 years ago. They cannot be pardoned. They have killed millions of Iraqis and thousands of Americans' sons and daughter through a war based entirely on lies. They have consistantly violated our civil rights. They have stolen two elections. They have ignored laws legally passed by congress through signing statements, and so on, and so on. Clinton was impeached for lieing about getting an Oval Office hummer from an intern, hardly a threat to national security and maybe, i repeat maybe at .worst an embarrassment to Hillary. Scooter Libby was convicted of the same and was immediately pardoned. All of this is beyond outrageous, and has without a doubt increased our danger of terrorist attacks here at home. These criminals MUST BE INVESTIGATED, TRIED, AND PUNISHED TO THE MAXIMUM ALLOWED BY LAW. Perhaps we shoud grant immunity to all of the members of congress who have been complicit just so we can get at the truth behind everything this criminal administration has been involved with, starting with 9/11. If Obama does nothing, he should immediately release every American now being held in prison, regardless of the reason. The crimes of Bu$h et al make even the most heinous crimes of our worst prisoners look like shoplifting in comparison. Does anyone think we have anybody serving charges for murder that have killed over one milion people ? No, not even close. This is serious folks. We are a nation of laws or not, and if we are (and God I certainly hope we are) then there are simpy no reasons not to prosecute Bu$h and his cabal. This calls for massive public demand for prosecution. We must give Obama no alternative.
and that is probably when the "Storm Troopers" of the US army are sent out to stamp out dissent- soldiers thinking they are STILL SERVING THE COUNTRY , when in fact they are only serving their GENERALS and the corporations the generals SERVE - and fire and use physical force, intimidation , and suppresion against their own fellow americans.
it's funny .. a small, weak, poverty stricken nation like the philippines decades ago - got sick and tired of a dictator like marcos -- who was a US client -- backed up by the US NAVY and AIRFORCE stationed there in two of its biggest foreign military installations to "keep watch on asia" -- managed to , in a SINGLE DAY - come together using text messaging - and word of mouth across 7,000 islands and toppled, peacefully , a dictator...and surrounded the tanks and army with flowers and giving the soldiers a "TALKING TO"...until their "military discipline" broke down .....
because they saw THEY had become the enemy of their own people in service of not just another corrupt politician but the US FINGERS behind it.
and they finally said - NO MORE US BASES. and kicked out the americans. of coruse that doesn't MEAN the americans HAVEN"T found a NEW way to retrofit american military presence -- in the name of "war on terror" . lol. it is all related -- with this global hegemony that has only created enemies where there were NONE. and it's the USA's DOING. there is NO question about that now in world history . NO QUESTION that it is the most MEDDLESOME, exploitative nation on earth. !
I'm with you 100% but I don't think its gonna happen. They're all going to walk scot-free. Its all so depressing. It wouldn't have to be this way. Iraq & Afghanistan will cost over $3 trillion before its all over, if it ever is all over. For that we could have built/rebuilt efficient passenger & freight rail service all over the US and that alone would have ended our dependence on foreign oil.
-- EKATON --
Sioux Rose
AUSSIDAWG: Passionate right-on post, and I am 101% with you on it, and your immunity plan to "get them to talk... and prosecute!"
The last 8 years have revealed a fundamental flaw in the US system of government. I was astonished when Bush admitted in 2005, not only to the illegal spying he authorized, but promising to continue this felonious act.
As a Canadian I was speechless, since in any of the British derived systems of constitutional monarchy if a Prime Minister were to make a similar admission he would be immediately visited by representatives of the Crown, in the form of the police.
The only quick fix that I see is to form a branch of special police under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, since the DOJ is completely political.
What Greenwald writes about is good to a certain degree, but if the chorus building up for war crimes prosecutions against the Bush-Cheney administration and don't focus on the worst crimes of all, the supreme international crimes of wars of aggression in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the supreme criminal act of war of aggression against Haiti, then the U.S. will not be advancing this world along much at all, with only prosecuting torture, abuses of GWoT detainees, wiretapping in the U.S., and so on; for they're only parts, or "part and parcel" of the worst crimes committed, the [supreme] ones.
Leave that one or those, given there are actually three definitely known cases, leave them non-prosecuted, and the act will be like saying that the population of the U.S. accepts that their govt commits the [supreme] crimes of wars of aggression. The world will then not have significantly improved.
All of these crimes are to be prosecuted, but focus on the supreme ones is [tantamount] and unforgivable to leave aside.
I'm with Greenwald, but there's just one fact that stops all of this speculation cold: the Democrats in Congress supported Bush's policies.
This conclusion needs to be digested by Obama voters. Consider that Obama's foreign policy will be much the same as the Bush administration's. There's slightly more emphasis by Obama on attacking Afghanistan, but that's about it.
Similarly, it took the support of Congressional Democrats to pass the PATRIOT Act, which effectually nullified our civil liberties. Why has there been no call to rescind it?
Congressional Democrats supported the Military Commissions Act, which "legalized" torture. Nanci Pelosi condoned torture by the CIA ("How can I help?" she asked).
Bush's defense is simply that Congress authorized all of it.
-TIA
It seems also that the Bill of Rights is still intact and that there have only been some legalese BS drawn up to circumvent those Rights. If it would take the repeal of those legalese statements then it would behoove the congress to do so as those types of junk just cannot remain in place that would allow the horrible things done by them to continue to happen.
And, YES, investigate and prosecute. To do nothing would create a greater danger and prescedence. Something that god-awful w said around the 'smoking gun being a mushroom cloud' time.
Again, and, the SEC needs very close scrutiny and investigating for their blatant disregard of being told of fraud being purpetrated which indicates complicity. Hell, the whole economics of wall street and its cabal need investigating.
This could open a vast field of jobs with all that needs investigating and I hope I would be able to find employment in such a position if and when it comes open.
My Congressional rep still feels that there is still no evidence pointing to any 'high crimes and misdemeanors', ergo no reason to consider drawing up articles of impeachment.
!!!!!!!
But I could be wrong !
You're not wrong. My congressional representatives are the same damn way. For the now, I did what is the only thing I could do and that was vote against them and I tried to alert veryone I could that as important as the presidency is the major changes will need to the replacing probably 90% of those who claim to represent us in congress. But apparently when it comes down to it most people believe their representatives in congress are doing a jam up good job and it is all the other reps that are the problem.
That is the passive end of it. Well, I guess we can try to be patient and see if the new congress grows a set of balls that will deal with the traitors to our country. And that should be begin with impeachment of nancy pelosi and harry reid. If that fails, out and out revolt.
notapacifist I’m a combat veteran and all of my friends and I live our life with post traumatic stress syndrome. The lives of everyone we have ever associated with, family, loved ones and even acquaintances have in some way been affected by this. This war as with our war (Vietnam) was initiated by the lies and deceit of a corrupt government. All our life we have been taught to be patriotic, that we live under the greatest system in the world, a government by and for the people, one nation under god. Were raised as good Christian children.Then were sent to some third world country, one inhabited by some godless people you know Communists, Muslims, Indians or the like. We go and fight our wars for god and country only to return to a country that has little or no use for it’s good Christian warriors any more. The government we so love and cherish now sees us as a liability and John Q public dispose of there support the troops magnets and now see us as those crazed vets. We spend the next thirty or so years fighting the VA for care for our cancers war wounds and depression. We watch our friends die of cancers caused by exposure to some chemical sold to our government for use on these godless lands, and we watch the corporations responsible shirk there responsibilities only to make the public foot the bill. We spend the years after our wars studying, trying to find the reason for our war only to realize it was a war for profit. The profit of people whose children never have to fight these wars. We finally realize that all of our wars have been for the profit of these people, the same people that are stealing the natural resources from every country we conquer, control or occupy. The same people we elect to govern this fine country, and the cause and reason we have terrorism. Finally we realize the cause of our post traumatic stress syndrome, and as long as the people that perpetrate this are allowed to continue unpunished our lives have and will continue to be a lie.
Simple, heart-rending eloquence.
-- ekaton, aka d.k.shaw
this is so sad !
i paraphrase something a read - :
"i so dislike these old men and their kind who send young people to kill and die in foreign wars - to pick fights with people who have no cause to hate us or wish to fight us - when they should be at home fighting their TRUE enemies -- the people in washington".
a historian said:
"All foreign wars that are instigated are really wars against the domestic population -- they are but the Aristocratic Form of making war upon the people" .
General Smedley Butler confessed:
"WAR is a racket -- it is something instigated by the banks, the financiers, the corporations . there is nothing Noble about war....you can huzzah it, fly flags , have bands and parades and statues, but it is nothing more than Murder in Uniform...in order to gather to our corporations as much of the world's resources as possible at the expense of others..the true purpose of the US military is to make the world safe for capitalism and our corporations and our cultural assault on other people...there is no money racket the US military is BLIND. it is the Big Muscle of the US corporate class, which has its "pointer men" to finger those we don't like to destroy them, and it has its Muscle Man ...I was its Muscle Man and Enforcer....all in service of the BIG BOSS -- our supernationalistic Capitalism."
I for one hope that the "Good People" of America continue to sit on their collective asses and do nothing. Essentially, with the exception of a few, truly good Americans (two dozen or so of them) the rest of America, excluding the children, are a lawless, criminal, dangerous people, arrogant, selfish, destructive, and their days are numbered.
Now they have reached the lowest level possible. They make excuses for the crimes committed by their leaders, blame the "other party", or "those godless sons of bitches " who are "liberals" and would lead "our country" into Communism.
They willingly allow criminals to collect all of their wealth, then piss it all away, then look the other way when the Bush administration gives BILLIONS to the same criminals that "pissed it all away"-----then they look the other way when the Republicans try one more time to destroy the UAW by choking the money off for the Auto Makers----cause "that's the "America Way".
I served the US (Vietnam era) in the USMC ---I frankly am sorry that I did that, but I was young and foolish and you know "full of fecal matter"---to think that it mattered to any one, but me.--- But as a Native American, I did my part to show that I could be a good citizen, risked my life and health, and future only to have the VA look the other way and render what would be considered in Europe, third world quality health care. But that's history. The future looms ahead.
It is my hope, that the USA gets e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g it deserves in the coming months and years ahead. Whatever that is, will be what the "world" decides.
The USA, is a rogue nation, dangerous, destructive, untrustworthy, and have most likely worn out their right to exist in the present form.
For the few "good citizens" (you know that two dozen I mentioned above), if things go the way I hope they will. My people will be free sovereign nations again---after the "World" cleans things up in the USA, we will have our treaties honored, and our lives will be as they were before 1776, FREE. We will not be Prisoners of War in our own country. Our children will have a future, and their children's children will as well. Then we will make a place in OUR "country" for those "two dozen decent Americans", and they will live in peace, with us, free and happy. No one will dress up in Regalia and Dance for the White folks at the Rodeo, there will not be any Rodeos, or circuses, or other displays of American/Anglo dominance over nature and others.
GW Bush and Dick Cheney and the others will be prisoners, somewhere in Europe, where they will be safe from those other Americans. You know how mean and vindictive those Americans can be, and after all, they have "God" on their side, so they will have "the permission" to make the "Bushies" lives a living hell; so keep them safe in their cells in _________ ( country of your choice so fill in the blank).
I know there are multitudes of you readers that are laughing at these words. But laugh as much as you will, and then consider that Germany would still be partitioned had the Soviet Republic not fallen apart----and that was only fifty years or so. And the Germans thought that they could do the same as the Americans thought they could---and how wrong were the Germans? So go ahead and "impeach" them--- or take them to trial here in the USA, that'll really make the world see how "good" the American people are. Soon, an American "passport" may have the same value as a "Taliban passport", Americans will be refused entry even into Mexico, becasue they are "some really dangerous people" and the only reason they have "passports" at all is to keep them from traveling anywhere----the rest of the world will be safer that way. And it will be no one elses fault but their own. Instead of the child that worries about the "buggerman under the bed", it will be the "American under the bed"---probably is anyway already.
Then again, those Americans could put a "turd in my punch bowl" of dreams for THEM, by doing the "right thing", and taking the "Bushies" to trial in the Hague.
Yea, right, and "Bird Dogs fly in flocks"...........when have the Americans EVER done the "right thing".....name three!
Good luck America, you rally need it....and that old clock is tick tick ticking.
reading your comment, NativeSon -- brought tears to my eyes....because it brings the circle fully around:
what BEGAN with the atrocities and cruelty upon the native americans - to become a global hegemon, with its 'capitalism' - and all its crimes and corrupt spirit "of america" - its narcissism and self-enrapturement and complete lack of honor has become so all-consuming. it's as if -- despite the "noble" pronouncements: "liberty, justice, pursuit of happiness" -- than excuses for every generation to cling to as a way to avoid confronting the truth that every step of the development of the USA as a nation ,being founded on EVIL :the deceptions against native americans, the SELF_deception of the colonists, could ONLY produce a nation of such power -- TOWARDS the basest instincts....no matter how gloriously wrapped in the highest aims of human decency.
i had always had the thought that - ONCE the native indians' cultures were destroyed by the incoming colonialists to supplant them to "build the shining city" - and along with it the destruction of the Indians' love and respect and AWE for what the earth gave us -- respect for ALL else was gone, right from the inception of the USA as a nation. everything else that would follow would be BUILT UPON nothing but DESTRUCTION in the name of "creating wealth".
it makes me shed tears at the ugliness of it all.
if the world survives this monstrous entity called the "united states of america" - as it is constituted - it seems that one day in the future it will be held up as the ultimate example of "NOBLE Cause" become the justification for great evils. ...so comprehensive and all-encompassing in the way it gather unto itself all the previous forms of practicing evil by means of "noble ideas".
the germans had the "noble idea" of Aryan supremacy. they never claimed "freedom for all mankind".
many empires claimed the nobility of their long histories...
others claimed Godhead..
etc...
NONE had GATHERED ALL THESE together into one ..as the USA has done. and that is all the more reason to have seen just how COMPLETELY corrupt it is.
Touche
Mike Corbeil has got it right. The most serious crimes, the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, are the ones the Bush gang should pay for first and foremost if there is to be any real justice and any moral catharsis for the nation. And for those who argue that this cannot be done because the Dems made it possible and therefore legal(which they did), the answer, and the motive for which one could still prosecute, is that the Bushies knowingly presented false evidence to make their case for war. We all know this, of course, but it bears repeating, especially because it could be the escape hatch that allows the Dems to dodge the consequences of their bad faith. That is, of course they knew Bush was lying, but since they pretended they didn't know, they can go on pretending, feign outrage now that they "know the truth", and thereby prosecute. There is no lack of administration insiders (Paul O'Neill et al) who could testify to the fabrication of evidence in the run-up to war, and there is an embarrassment of documentary riches to mine in the search for damning evidence (Nigerian Yellowcake, contradictory statements--i.e., boldfaced lies--made to the press by Rumsfeld, Cheney, Bush, plus miles and miles of paper, video and audio documenting the mendacity that was the very modus operandi of these people). I would even go so far as to say that if Obama and co. do not go after the Bush administration for these crimes, then the cancer will grow, the troops will stay in Iraq and Afghanistan, the worldwide confrontation between the West and Islam will continue, and Israel will go on feeling no pressure to do anything remotely resembling the right thing. The lies in the case for war with Iraq are the key. Only one, very sure angle is needed to get these guys. And once they've been nailed for attacking Iraq on false pretences, all the other stuff can follow: Afghanistan and, ultimately, the bogus "justification" for attacking Afghanistan, the mother of all treacheries, 9/11.
Just who is America afraid of that it won't prosecute the Bush administration for its crimes? The Republicans went for the jugular of a former president for a non-criminal matter and yet we can't go after a monsoon of criminality from a Republican administration. Could this have to do with the Republican belief in the strategic use of murder? Perhaps nobody wants to look this devil in the eye for fear of it gazing back. We have been exposed to pure evil here and I guess the instinct is to let the monster pass. But if we don't destroy it will it come back? Perhaps the only way to destroy it is through recognition of what it is ( through prosecution) and perpetual vigilance.
The Democrats don't even have enough integrity to charge Myers, Gonzalez, and Rove with Contempt of Congress. To think they'll do anything to Bush and Cheney is laughable.
"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it."
A. Lincoln
And on January 20, 2009 Barack Obama will become a co-defendant.
Or "co-conspirator", seeing as how he voted to continue the funding for said crime.
Musings: Does the LAW trump the DIVINE RIGHT of kings ( aka rulers), as claimed by Bush? Or infallability as claimed by the Pope?
Will Obama automatically become a war criminal as soon as he becomes Commander in Chief?
Were Abraham Lincoln and the Federal generals war criminals?