Emboldened by a Democratic win of the White House, civil libertarians and human rights groups want the incoming Obama administration to investigate whether the Bush administration committed war crimes. They don't just want low-level CIA interrogators, either. They want President George W. Bush on down. Full Story »
Posted by Derek Hawkins
This article does not clearly report the war crimes themselves. Rather than inform on facts, it leapfrogs into the current mentality favored by the right wing and by triangulating centrists in the Democratic party. The basic message is that it is hopeless to uphold the law and hold criminals accountable for their crimes. As such, it seems ethically challenged and presumptive.
Failure to hold these criminals accountable will send a clear message that the constitution, international laws, and domestic laws can be ignored with impunity. That lesson appears not to have been learned from the Nixon pardons and from the failure to prosecute Iran-contra, which led directly into the fiasco of fools and criminals that made up the Bush administration. I want the people to demand accountability, and not submit to mamby-pamby excuses of one politician. Another ... More »
This is analysis that skips the question of whether war crimes were committed and instead examines views of politicians and scholars on the best way to determine what happened, why it happened and whether actions are needed to prevent it from happening again. The writer's views can be inferred but the analysis is careful to identify and quote sources.
I have maintained for a long time that no one would ever see a day in prison, so criminal prosecution would not be cost effective. We should instead follow the South African truth commition model. Failing that we should place Valerie Plame in charge of Secret Service protection for Bush and Cheney. Not saying she wouldn't do a professional job, but the fear and uncertainty would be a hell of a payback.
It takes a long time (more than five grafs) until the author introduces any of these critics. For most of the article, they're referred to abstractly. Many government officials mentioned are referred to as "senior Justice Department officials" - or some variation of that - rather than using actual names.
While trying to find a way to prosecute Bush & Co. the author comes up empty. Still, a well written article.
I doubt that there will ever be prosecutions against this Admin., and if there were , Bush will pardon everyone before he leaves office anyway. One idea, let the International Criminal Court prosecute, and the bastards won't every be able to leave this country. Not a harsh penalty, but something!
This story is nut case crazy stuff. Why bother with it. Bush did a great job on stopping terror attacks. An overly legalistic approach to war is just stupid academic stuff. You may be sure that our enemies are not following any imaginary laws of war.
This article qualifies as journalism, but begins by accepting the notion that "bush went too far" which leads the reader to believe that there may be some bias here.
It is a good thing that many of our leaders today were not around during WWII. The army air corps would have been reduced to dropping happy thoughts all across the Reich rather than fire bombing the German populace into submission. War crimes can only be committed against the troops of a sovereign nation; what happens to murderous thugs is another matter.
Retrieving Comments
