Bush's Day of Reckoning
When Barack Obama becomes the 44th President of the United States, he'll face daunting challenges: a shattered economy, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and global climate change, to mention only three. Nonetheless, many Americans feel Obama should immediately address the improprieties of the Bush Administration, particularly authorization of the use of torture. There's increasing support for a day of reckoning for George Bush and his cohorts.
While Americans have a long list of complaints about Bush, there are two central grievances. One is that the 43rd President proved incompetent as the Federal "CEO." While disastrous, his ineptitude was not a violation of the law.
The other complaint is that Bush abused Presidential power. Most progressive lawyers disapprove of the Administration's conduct of the "war" on terror. Eric Holder, Obama's nominee for Attorney General, observed: "Our government authorized the use of torture, approved of secret electronic surveillance against American citizens, secretly detained American citizens without due process of law, denied the writ of habeas corpus to hundreds of accused enemy combatants and authorized the procedures that violate both international law and the United States Constitution."
There are two schools of thought about what to do about Bush's misconduct. One, reflected in the writing of former Bush legal adviser Jack Goldsmith, argues that while war-time decisions sometimes are erroneous, there has been a historical pattern of shielding the decision makers -- from Abraham Lincoln through Ronald Reagan. Goldsmith contends that whatever abuses Bush committed have largely been corrected. And, to enact harsh judgment on decision makers would curtail their future performance, particularly officials gathering intelligence in the CIA and Justice Department.
The other school of thought, represented by Georgetown law professor David Cole argues that the federal system of checks and balances was broken by Bush and cannot be reformed, "unless we are willing to account for what we did wrong in the past."
While President-elect Obama wants to develop a bipartisan atmosphere on Capitol Hill and, therefore, may be reluctant to investigate Bush improprieties, the subject is too important to be put off. Steps need to be taken to curtail the expansion of executive power by future Presidents.
Because Congress offered little objection to Bush's abuse of the role of commander-in-chief, it will not be sufficient to have only a congressional inquiry. David Cole recommends, "an independent, bipartisan, blue-ribbon commission to investigate and assess responsibility for the United States' adoption of coercive interrogation policies. If it is to be effective, it must have subpoena power, sufficient funding, security clearances, access to all the relevant evidence, and, most importantly, a charge to assess responsibility."
Ideally, a torture commission would serve two functions: It would enumerate the sequence of decisions that resulted in the coercive interrogation policies - identify the key decision makers and make clear the involvement of President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and former Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld. (Many of their actions have already come to light.)
The torture commission should also recommend how to prevent a recurrence of these actions. This is a particularly challenging problem because the most egregious abuses happened during wartime when the decision makers believed the United States was threatened with imminent attack -- Bush's actions followed his donning of the mantle of commander-in-chief after 9/11. Two problems are apparent: the decisions were made in an atmosphere of tight secrecy -- Congress had little involvement -- and they lacked careful consideration -- many of the decisions, such as The Patriot Act, were rushed.
At the heart of the Bush improprieties lies a vexing ethical problem: the U.S. legal tradition of granting executives immunity. If confronted with his decision to authorize torture, Bush can argue that his lawyers told him this action was within his constitutional authority and, therefore, he believed he was doing the right thing. By taking this position, Bush and other CEOs typically face no charges; they take advantage of a legal loophole. If you poison someone, as an individual, you can count on jail time. But, if as a corporation executive you authorize policies that poison hundreds of people -- by, for example, dumping toxic waste in a water source -- you go free or receive only a slap on the wrist. Thus an individual soldier, convicted of torture, goes to jail, but the President, Vice-President, and Secretary of Defense, who authorized torture of hundreds of prisoners, are granted immunity.
Our tradition absolves top executive from responsibility for faulty decisions. It's a unique "get out of jail free" card granted to the American executive class. The logic seems to be that our Presidents and our CEOs won't think creatively if they're constantly worrying about possible legal consequences. The result is to hold no one responsible for decisions that harm the common good.
The Torture Commission should challenge the notion of executive immunity and recommend holding the President, and his cronies, fully responsible for the adoption of coercive interrogation policies. Checks and balances have to be restored. There should be a day of reckoning for the Bush Administration.
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look, to impeach this guy would distract the heck out of this country. as much as i know many of us want to see this man pay for his crimes, it's more important right now to concentrate on getting unemployed workers jobs and to start re-building the economic infrastructure of our country. the entire world relies on the strength of the American economy to drive the global economy. we owe it to the world to put everything we have into solving the problem of extricating ourselves from Iraq, winning the fight in Afghanistan, and re-building the depleted American financial system.
let's get to work and ignore the garbage. we can still bring justice to the injustices of the bush administration by reversing the policies and starting anew, but the visceral satisfaction of bush and cheney, inc 'paying' for their crimes in jail is not only a pipe dream, it's a distraction that we cannot afford. remember the clinton impeachment? it distracted the country from supporting his effort to get bin laden after the embassy attacks. let's keep our eyes focused squarely on the problems at hand.
If the U.S. does not take action against U.S. officials who committed/
If someone sets fire to your home, the first call should be to the fire department. If the person that set the fire is watching the flames, the second call should be to the police.
yeah, we heard you the first time.
Forget pursuing those of the Bush Reich. Our country is in trouble on so many levels that we need all our national energies focused on saving our sinking ship. The best justice will be served by those American historians who write the public school and college level textbooks and who chronicle the American nightmare we have endured for eight years.
Those who share in the blame are the ignorant or self-serving 51% of the electorate who allowed this all to continue occurring for almost a decade...
If an arsonist sets fire to your home, yes, you immediately try to put out the fire. The fire department is called for that. If the arsonist is standing by watching the flames the police department should be the next phone call.
There are some things that become axioms. Regarding History and War there is the axiom that "History is written by the Victors". This one also holds true, that "Powerful nations never willing submit themselves to World Scrutiny or subject themselves to the authority of other nations ". Unfortunately the facts are that once the Soviet Union fell apart there was no one else to hold Americas feet to the fire. As a solitary "Superpower" Republicans probably felt their was no one to challenge our Supremacy and therefore we could do as we wished. Megalomaniacal Fascism at it's best.
My feelings on the Subject of Punishment for Bush and his cohorts is this. If our Country can haul other nations leaders to the World Court for war crimes, or even abduct them here for trial, then the same should hold true for our own leaders. What's good for others is equally good for them.
I'm with you. it's a minor distraction that we'd all welcome while we work on the Big Stuff. No war criminal should walk away with a fat wallet and no consequences. Basic human decency - nothing to do with the "electorate" that allowed all this to happen. all responsible, even part of the electorate, should pay for their crimes against humanity. Held up as examples to the rest of the world that we're not just ineffective bullies...
We must change "our tradition.
Incompetence and ineptitude may not be illegal, but violating the Constitution and federal laws such as FISA against warrant-less wire taps of American citizens are prosecutable crimes. Don't forget, Bush/Cheney violated FISA for more than a year - even bragged about it - prior to having the law rewritten. There is also the question of the legality of retroactive Telecom immunity - it is not Constitutional to violate a law and then pass legislation to absolve criminals of illegal acts retroactively for the expressed purpose of protecting one's self from prosecution. If that were the case, a President could assassinate his political opponent, then pass legislation declaring said assassination legal.
Tommygun264,
Yeah, or use the argument that "If the President does it it isn't illegal". Rigggggghh
i don't know. It would be a dream come true, but I hold little hope that the American people will see justice. It's a shame, but I don't believe Congress will do anything substantive. But we the people must do something to rebuild and restore our nation or we will never have any credibility in the world - America, as an ideal, will be dead. Tragic.
To think BO can right the wrongs in his short tenure, even if re-elected, just aint gonna happen. It will be generations before all the crimes committed in the name of 911 are exposed. Most of us writing wont be here that long.
I'd like to see the "Ox Bow Incident" remade with Bush in Dana Andrews role.
I'm usually not in favor of the Old Testament rendition of "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth", but in the case of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Ronald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales, Condi Rice, and any other War Criminals that are ferreted out, I think its time for a day of reckoning for this crew. And if our congressional leaders fail to go after them....I hope The Hague holds hearings and learn the truth of what these "leaders" have done.
I would be happy with by-the-book justice on all counts and as anything more comes to light continue with the trials....
These men and women will not be able to leave the US without fear of the ICC hauling them in. I think its imperative that America hold its own responsibie by the rule of law. In this country we execute people for treason and for mass murder and these people should face no less a potential outcome and if that is what comes of it the POTUS needs to keep his hands off and let justice be done, no pardons. If we wan't the perception of a country that is based on the rule of law and that can demand accountability for human rights violations of other countries, then we need to act that way and hold our own accountable, first, before any one else has to (like the ICC).
The alternative is like the last 8 years, only worse....
Dateline: 05/07/02
Through a letter to the U.N., the Bush administration has reserved the right of the U.S. to ignore decisions and orders issued by the International Criminal Court. The action effectively neutralizes President Clinton's signature to the treaty creating the court.
I knew they were covering their b-tts
http://ruw
the Seeker.
Mr. Burnett,
I think that along with the other abuses of power there needs to be a fully transparent accounting of the CIA "Rendition" program that snatched citizens off of the streets of the world, a number of apparantly innocent ones, and delivered them into torture and imprisonment. Al Gore has mentioned that nearly 100 people died while under the control of this CIA program...
So add CIA renditions to your list of issues that Bush and co need to answer for...
"The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder" by Vincent Bugliosi
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