War crimes

Woman gives dognapper
$25,000 in diamond rings
to reclaim her Shih Tzu.

Jonathan Turley, a Professor of Constitutional Law, on the Rachel Maddow show, expressed his concern that the Democrats would not pursue the war crimes of the Bush/Cheney administration, even though they have announced they will not pardon any of the participants. Their argument is simply that they had the legal right to torture (which they euphemistically labeled enhanced interrogation techniques) and therefore no pardons should be required. Among other techniques used by them was waterboarding. Waterboarding has been defined as a war crime virtually from time immemorial. The U.S. actually executed some Japanese after WW II for waterboarding. There is no doubt our government employed waterboarding. Apparently Bush/Cheney and their criminal gang believe the Democrats will not have the political will to pursue them over these crimes. For the Democrats to do so would of course take time and energy away from all of the other problems they will encounter after taking office.

The legal basis they claim for what they have done is little more than a bad joke. They recruited their own lawyers to write memos, shifting the definitions of torture and the rights of the chief executive so they could proceed with what they wished to do. Turley believes, as do I, that as a legal defense this is little more than laughable. But they may get away with it. This must not be allowed to happen. The Obama administration has to act from law and morality and not merely from a political position. To fail to do so will label our government in the eyes of the world as sanctioning torture. It will be a public relations disaster from which we will likely never recover. We will take our place in the absolute depths of depraved societies, far below those many smaller societies that have successfully tried and punished their leaders for war crimes and crimes against humanity. This is not a time for politics as usual, for letting bygones be bygones. The stakes are much to high and we have far too much to lose. Bush/Cheney should have been impeached long ago, but the Democrats were both too timid and too politically motivated to do what was required. They must act honorably now, no matter what the cost may be. We are dealing here with human lives and human misery so monumental as to be virtually unthinkable. Hundreds of thousands of innocent lives lost, millions more with their lives in ruins and their misery uncalculable. If we allow these vicious monsters to walk free, we join them. I cannot believe the citizens of the country I love so much will allow this to happen. If ever there was a need for justice it is here and now. If we fail our shame will be emblazoned in indelible ink in huge letters for all the world to see and remember forever.

A friend stopped me today and expressed his concern that Obama may not carry out his plan for a middle-class tax break or an increase in taxes for the rich. What could I say? What I did say was the simple and obvious truth, “well, you know these elected officials do not always do what they said they were going to do.” This seems to be in the nature of our so-called Democratic system. Sometimes those elected probably had no intention of carrying out their promises, sometimes by the time they take office conditions have changed so they are unable to keep their promises. Bill Clinton said at one point that if we elected Obama we would just be rolling the dice. As far as I can see that is true no matter who is elected. We elect people that we think are going to do more or less what we would like them to do. But they rarely, if ever, do precisely that. Now all kinds of people are beginning to question Obama’s picks for his cabinet and administration, pointing out that they are all Clintonites, or have some serious flaws, or they are hawks rather than anti-war types, or they have suspicious histories, and so on. Finally, I said to my friend, “console yourself with the fact that it is now out of your hands.” Such is the nature of our electoral system. I guess “vote and pray,” describes it pretty well. For those who do not pray I guess it’s “vote and hope.” We all live in such an imperfect world.

Inscription found on a confiscated handgun:

“Be not afraid of any man,
no matter what his size,
just call on me, my friend,
for I will equalize.”

TILT:
John McCain held a press conference today apparently to announce that he was going to make an announcement in the future.