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Many would like to see the Bush team face charges of war crimes. Better would be a less politically charged yet powerful enough commission
Published on Monday, Jan 05, 2009
The cry has been heard: Put Donald Rumsfeld, Douglas Feith and others on trial for war crimes. No less than Eric Holder, tapped by Barack Obama to serve as attorney general, suggested such a course in June. He declared (correctly) that ''our government authorized the use of torture . . . secretly detained American citizens without due process of law, denied the writ of habeas corpus to hundreds of accused enemy combatants and authorized the use of procedures that violate both international law and the United States Constitution.''
Holder concluded powerfully: ''We owe the American people a reckoning.''
What kind of reckoning?
President-elect Obama has drawn a careful distinction between ''genuine crimes'' and ''really bad policies.'' Recall the mentality inside the Bush team after the Sept. 11 attacks and the anthrax episodes. Many in the White House and elsewhere believed the next ghastly attack was imminent. The president wanted no holds barred in preventing the next strike. In that spirit, the president declared that ''enemy combatants'' were not protected by the Geneva Conventions, and John Yoo and Jay Bybee of the Justice Department wrote a memo opening the way to the use of torture. Donald Rumsfeld, as secretary of defense, authorized coercive interrogation tactics that went far beyond previous Pentagon policies.
As careless and damaging as these actions have proved, inflicting immense harm to the American image, they are more about ''really bad policies'' than ''genuine crimes.'' Be as critical as you want of Rumsfeld and the others. Admit, too, that they genuinely believed such steps were necessary.
To be sure, good faith is not a sufficient legal defense. Yet, as Obama signaled, the circumstances carry a political bent. In April, he explained to the Philadelphia Daily News that ''I would not want my first term consumed by what was perceived on the part of Republicans as a partisan witch hunt,'' adding ''we've got too many problems we've got to solve.''
If a criminal prosecution isn't likely, what should be done to hold accountable those responsible for such ''bad policies''? Books have been written. Congressional hearings have been held. None has been sufficient in establishing officially the chain of decision-making. Once in the Oval Office, Barack Obama should form a stellar, bipartisan commission, armed with subpoena power, to pull together the sorry story. In that way, the country would take responsibility, helping to repair its image by identifying those who so misjudged what serves American interests.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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Tepplin, DC
Posted 10:29 AM, 01/05/2009
This entire administration ought to have a date with the International Criminal Court at The Haugue on January 20. Perhaps then, Cheney wouldn't be wearing that smug lopsided grin.
My Heart Is In K-Town, .
Posted 10:06 PM, 01/05/2009
...I wonder how you would feel if your friends/family came crumbling down with the twin towers? I suspect totally different.
