Excerpt:
Amy Goodman: “Do you think President Bush should be brought up on war crimes [charges], and Vice President Cheney and [Defense Secretary] Donald Rumsfeld, for the attack on Iraq?”
Richard Clarke: “I think things that they authorized probably fall within the area of war crimes. Whether that would be productive or not, I think, is a discussion we could all have. But we have established procedures now with the International Criminal Court in The Hague, where people who take actions as serving presidents or prime ministers of countries have been indicted and have been tried. So the precedent is there to do that sort of thing. And I think we need to ask ourselves whether or not it would be useful to do that in the case of members of the Bush administration. It’s clear that things that the Bush administration did — in my mind, at least, it’s clear that some of the things they did were war crimes.”
There has been a rash of such statements by former Bush officials. As Liberaland noted, Lawrence Wilkerson also characterizes the administration in this way, and says he regrets that the GOP focuses on Benghazi rather than 8 years of crimes:
Republican Colonel Blasts GOP For Focusing On Benghazi Instead Of Cheney’s War Crimes (via Liberaland)
Retired. U.S. Army Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson is ashamed of his party. Wilkerson asserted that embassy security went underfunded, and that security at diplomatic facilities would be better if the Congress followed the recommendations of committee convened…
How about Feith and Perle and Yoo and Condi and Powell and Bremer and all those dudes from the Vietnam “Best and Brightest” who have not escaped into comfortable deaths, and on and on and on? How about that smarmy little prig Blair, and check this video on self-help justice? link to youtube.com
“We” want to pretend, when it’s convenient for “our interests,” that there’s an “international community” that is expected to observe “international law.” Hypocritical BS. All about power+wealth. And what you can get away with. None of the Players are really serious about “enforcing” the squishy thing called the Law of War and all that, knowing that it would apply to THEM and “limit their freedom of action.” Nothing but BS. Does Wilkerson get to sleep better for “speaking up”? Did McNamara, for sort-of-apologizing? Does their God forgive them for all the pain and misery and bending the direction of Great State and Terrorist behavior to its present course? Protecting the Combustoconsumption Corporation and the Almighty Dollar? Extending and expanding the RACKET called “war?”
You wrote “probably” committed war crimes… These people belong in jail.
Today, when someone maims, tortures an kills, they get put away.
Lets do that!
Clarke ponders whether it would be useful to call Bush and company up on war crimes. This is a strangely apathetic way to speak of holding people responsible for criminal behavior. It is in keeping with the idea in Washington that the law is a blob of silly-putty that can be shaped as needed, that we can look at the law in many ways to see which is most convenient.
Ask yourself if the police would watch a burglary in progress from their patrol car and ponder at length whether it would be productive to arrest the burglar for trial.
The entire nation was witness to the frenzy with which the crime of the Iraq war was set up and put into action. There wasn’t the slightest doubt that the administration wanted war and would not be deterred, that the sequential “reasons” for it were hastily concocted and, above all, that it was a war of choice. The perps are contentedly enjoying lavish retirements. Justice holds the scales blindly, but I see tears coming from under her blindfold.
He should include his former boss and patron, Colon Powell, for his infamous presentation at the U.N. of blatantly fabricated evidence of WMDs and the rest of it. Gen. Powell should have resigned rather than dishonor himself and America before the entire world.
@EllieElliottFDL & Sad that feckless Mr. O is still catching the heat for Bush-Cheney-Rice-Monsanto sewage he has failed to flush.
George Bush suffers from diminished mental capacity due to years and years of alcohol abuse. However, when George had his “moment of clarity” and said “Let’s ROLL!!!,” 70% of the American people thought that was a great idea. They were GUNG HO to get some PAYBACK for 9/11 and go to war against Muslims in Iraq.
Many former supporters of that war did NOT turn against it until the invasion got bogged down. Before that, I’ll bet they cheered the president went he landed on the U.S.S. Lincoln and gave his “Mission Accomplished” speech.
ZOOM!!!
DID Richard Clarke forget about Paul Wolfowitz?
A trial or nothing? This is a false dichotomy: A process patterned on truth and reconciliation commissions could serve as an alternative and more accessible means for formal public accountability.