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Recent Wikileaks disclosures underscore what so many have been saying that there is an obligation of the Obama Administration to investigate and, if warranted by the evidence, take action.
Many political officeholders and strategists have long contended that it would be absurd and impractical to ignite a political time bomb such as investigating and potentially recommending that criminal action be taken against members of the Bush Administration.
This grave issue should not be decided based on political expediency. International law and the United States Constitution mandate action if the evidence warrants it.
Let the Republican-Tea Party members, not necessarily in that order, scream at the tops of their lungs. The louder that they shriek the greater the indication that justice is being served.
Apart from one U.S. based website, Just Foreign Policy, the issue of Iraqi deaths has been essentially a point of silence. On those occasions when they are discussed a highly paid Murdoch-New World Order propaganda mouthpiece like Bill O'Reilly will howl that the numbers cited are wrong.
On the Just Foreign Policy site the source revealing the numbers is the highly respected British medical journal Lancet, which has been around much longer than O'Reilly and is not a paid organ of Rupert Murdoch. The issue of how the current figure was arrived at is carefully explained.
It is time to mention that current figure. As of the time when this article is being written the deaths caused by the U.S. invasion stand at 1,421,933.
Recent Wikileaks disclosures reveal that Bush's Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld lied when he asserted that there was no evidence of widespread civilian killing in Iraq. Instead he continued propagating his deception that the United States was using "smart bombs" that possessed such apparent advanced intelligence that they were eluding the general Iraqi populace and concentrating exclusively on the Army of Saddam Hussein.
Ellen Knickmeyer in October 26 edition of The Daily Beast wrote about her experiences in Iraq after the United States invaded. She described the horrific events culminating with bombs being dropped on February 22, 2006 on the northern Iraqi city of Samarra that destroyed the golden dome of a revered Shia shrine.
Knickmeyer described the horrifying events she witnessed shortly thereafter:
"A few hours later, I drove through Baghdad and watched the country descend into civil war. Then the Baghdad bureau chief for The Washington Post, I drove with Iraqi and American colleagues to Sadr City, the sprawling slum on the outskirts of the city. We watched hundreds of black-clad religious militiamen, waving their AK 47s in the air and calling for revenge, in what would be the start to a campaign of sectarian killing and torture."
Past dismissals of Attorney General Eric Holder notwithstanding, the British newspaper The Guardian reported that that the United Nations has called on President Obama to launch a full investigation into human rights abuses in Iraq as an outgrowth of the current Wikileaks disclosures. As quoted in the October 23 edition of Just Foreign Policy, the UN's chief investigator on torture Michael Nowak has said that a U.S. refusal to investigate would be "a failure to recognize its obligations under international law."
Nowak stated further that the principle of "non-refoulement" prohibited states from transferring detainees to other countries that could pose a risk to their personal safety. It should be recalled that previously Holder refused to allow his department to investigate rendition and other torture claims perpetrated during the Bush Administration.
Based on recent actions, Holder has demonstrated disjointed priorities. Holder is so upset about the prospect of Proposition 19 passing in upcoming California balloting that he has stated that he will refuse to abide by such a result. He has thereby indicated that he is solidly against marijuana being legalized by voters of the nation's most populous state while resisting investigating international torture and death in violation of international law and the United States Constitution.
Any meaningful investigation need begin with the roots of war, the invasion of another nation that was not under clear and present danger of attack. What occurred was preventive war, which is illegal under international law. As a signatory to this provision, which extends back to the Nuremberg Codes established after World War Two, the U.S. is duty bound to uphold it.
Such treaties to which the U.S. is a signatory are automatically enforceable under the Constitutition. It is the duty of the president to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed."
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