Recently I was watching the "Washington Journal" program, a call-in show, on CSPAN; the guest was an attorney representing a number of people being held at the Guantanamo concentration camp. People are there who've been held, uncharged with any crime, for as long as three years. Many have been subject to abusive treatment and some have even died under interrogation. Only about a quarter of these people were captured by allied troops under combat conditions. The rest are civilians who were either abducted from their homes by American troops or accused and turned over to them by locals for a bounty. These conditions of captivity are in clear violation of the Geneva Conventions and brand the American captors and their superiors (including President Bush) as war criminals.
It astonished me that a number of callers had no understanding of even the most elementary principles of justice as expressed in the Constitution and international law - principles like habeas corpus, humane treatment of prisoners, the right to a speedy trial and the right to security from illegal search and seizure. They would be willing to simply grab anyone off the street that Bush calls an enemy combatant (even you or your neighbor) and lock him or her up forever without ever charging them with any crime.
Alberto Gonzales has called the Geneva Conventions "quaint"and contends that everyone being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is an enemy combatant with no right of habeas corpus. He claims that captured enemy combatants, whether soldiers or saboteurs, may be detained for the duration of hostilities. They need not be guilty of anything; they are detained simply by virtue of their status as enemy combatants.
According to the International Red Cross: Captured combatants and civilians who find themselves under the authority of the adverse party are entitled to respect for their lives, their dignity, their personal rights and their political, religious and other convictions. They must be protected against all acts of violence or reprisal. They are entitled to exchange news with their families and receive aid. They must enjoy basic judicial guarantees.
George W. Bush has waged an unprovoked war of aggression against Iraq and for that reason alone should be charged with crimes against humanity, brought before the international court of justice and tried as a war criminal.
In addition he has violated all standards of humane behavior by authorizing torture of those whom he decides is an enemy combatant.
He has abrogated international treaties and made America the most feared and despised country in the world.
His policies have thwarted international efforts to bring global warming under control, the consequences of this may well be irreversible and cause life and property loss for coastal areas worldwide.
His fiscal policies have benefitted only the wealthiest one percent of our people while bankrupting the national treasury. The consequences of this will be a financial collapse that will cause the greatest financial dislocations we have ever known, involving massive unemployment and perhaps even armed insurrection in the streets.
I predict that if he and Cheney are permitted to finish out the remaining two years of their terms he will resign shortly before the inauguration of the incoming Democratic president, making Cheney president for a week or two who then, like Ford vis-a-vis Nixon, will pardon him for all crimes he may have committed during his eight year tenure. It is likely that he and his family will then relocate to the 100,000 acre ranch they recently bought in Paraguay
While he will undoubtedly escape justice it will take generations for America to recover, if at all, from the damage he has done In the meantime perhaps we can learn humility and apologize to the rest of the world for our arrogance and try to make whatever amends we can. And just maybe we will be respected again and welcomed back as a contributing member of the family of peace-loving nations.
Bob is a retired engineer and lives in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. He contributed significantly to the post-Challenger redesign of the solid rocket boosters for the space shuttle. He has taught engineering at several universities and was involved in the design of Offshore platforms. Since retiring his main activity has become writing directed at ridding America of its fascist president and the right-wing corporatism he represents.
Great article ! Simple and to the point . Thanks to Americans like you more and more people are opening their eyes to the lies being fed to us on a such grand scale.
by
KC (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 1 comments)
on Sunday, December 31, 2006 at 10:29:37 AM
You're absolutely right about the nature and significance of the crimes of the Bush administration against the world and against ordinary Americans. And you are possibly correct in your resignation-pardoning prediction, although such things are hard to predict since little is what it appears. Maybe Bush has nothing to fear even without a presidential pardon from Cheney.
Whatever happens, nobody really expects justice in America anymore. Americans don't really seem to understand the concept, as you have suggested, let alone clamor for it. And the Democratic Party's loyalties and priorities are suspect.
So, absent any pressure from Congress or the American people for accountability, a person with Bush's connections has nothing to worry about whatever course he chooses. Still, we can benefit by discussing how things ought to be as well as how they are.
It wasn't until your last paragraph that I found myself in disagreement. You wrote:
"In the meantime perhaps we can learn humility and apologize to the rest of the world for our arrogance and try to make whatever amends we can."
Well, I suppose I agree with your sentiment, but there is no reason to expect the American people to behave with humility or remorse or any measured response. It's just not in the national vocabulary or repertoire any more. There is no reason to expect them to see any more clearly what is going on under their noses than they have in recent years. Nor to know what to do about it if they did. They have been rendered intellectually and morally incompetent (deliberately I believe) and cannot be expected to behave heroically or even sensibly.
The American people are out of practice exercising reason, good judgment, fortitude, sacrifice, diplomacy, compassion, remorse, restraint, shame and humility. If (or when) the American standard of living comes crashing down in some economic Armageddon, the American people will almost certainly decompensate and behave like any proud people who have been humiliated and are terrified by the future: they'll be deceived by and submit to fascists even more so then than now, not less. And America will become more xenophobic, hostile and isolated, not less. Think of the once proud world dominant German people during their economic depression with runaway inflation in the 1930's. They were child's play for fascist propagandists.
Given that the American people have no other apparent talents or resources to fall back on than Frankenstein mob mentality, they too will likely be deceived by fascists (again) and will withdraw into their uberpatriotic, xenophobic mode (again) rather than embrace the world with grace, warmth and courage as you express hope that they will do.
I'd love to be wrong here, and maybe I am, but I don't expect so. Character is forged by example over a long time period. We have the opposite here and now.
by
Yaybob (12 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 174 comments)
on Sunday, December 31, 2006 at 8:49:45 PM
2 comments
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