Allowing today's leaders to get away with war crimes will send a dangerous signal to future leaders that they can do the same.
"The battle to impose criminal responsibility upon them (Bush, Cheney, etc.) is not for today alone but to safeguard a vast future, points out Lawrence Velvel, dean of the Massachusetts School of Law at Andover.
"Otherwise the future will be threatened by Executive lawlessness undertaken because of knowledge that leaders need fear to no personal consequences, he writes in his recently published "America 2008 (Doukathsan Press).
"Today, there is no accountability for our leaders, nor do their own families face death on the front lines as occurred during the Civil War when several Cabinet officials' sons or brothers faced battle and World WII when one of FDR's sons participated in extraordinarily dangerous missions in the Pacific.
Instead, there are numerous factors today that make it easy for a President to wage war, Velvel continues, such as half trillion dollar appropriations, huge standing military forces which the President orders into combat all around the world at the proverbial drop of a hat, a compliant Congress that refuses to do its duty, and an incompetent, if not venal, mainstream media.
"Not unless leaders fear prison or the gallows for actions that violate law will there be anything to check the next headlong rush to war for allegedly good reasons that later prove false, as with Mexico, Spain, Viet Nam or Iraq, Velvel warns.
He says the U.S. has repeatedly fought in wrong wars for a number of reasons, foremost of which is the fact that "the nation larges does not know, and ignores, history.
Other factors include a national penchant for violence, hubris, "lies, distortions and delusions, "a desire to maintain American power at a preeminent level, Congressional abdication of responsibility coupled with Executive seizure of power, public gullibility, nearly uncontrolled nationalism, the South's military culture, and Hollywood's incessant war-glorifying movies, i.e., "The John Wayne syndrome.
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