Forget About Prosecuting Bush War Crimes?

(9 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Why don’t we just forget about prosecution of Bush, Cheney, et al, let them ride off into the fading sunset off the hook having tortured and killed their way to a nice comfortable retirement as long as they just go away, and instead just change things so there is no more torture and war crimes being committed by the President in future?

That is fundamentally the “move forward” argument. Is it a legitimate argument, or is it an excusing of war crimes? It’s not a legal question, it’s a political one.

On Tuesday we saw the first of a multipart video discussion between Progressive Democrats of America board member David Swanson and Yellow Dog Democrat and Chair of The National Congress of Black Women Dr. Fay Williams, talking with Paul Jay of The Real News on the question of whether or not to prosecute Bush and Cheney, and heard Dr. Williams state that if we want prosecution to happen people are going to have to make Obama and Holder do it. People have to move the window of political possibility far enough to make them do it, in other words.

The question has moved far beyond our Petition For A Special Prosecutor since we began it though more signatures can only help it to become reality, is now in the media to a degree that impeachment never came close to, and is becoming a national if not worldwide debate, and Republicans are obviously terrified that it might happen, as we saw highlighted so clearly Wednesday with the Kit Bond Republican comedy of lies and fiasco.

In this second part of the discussion between Swanson, Williams and Paul Jay their conversation continues as they address and debate directly whether the “move forward” argument is legitimate, and about many of the ramifications and complexities involved in the question, with Swanson arguing the pros and Williams arguing some of the cons.



Real News: January 28, 2009 – 12 min 55 sec

Should Obama prosecute Bush and Cheney?

Pt.2

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9 comments

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    • Edger on January 29, 2009 at 03:20
      Author

    Or should they go to prison?

    • BobbyK on January 29, 2009 at 05:16

    Damn the political risk, it’s the right thing to do.

    Ignoring War Crimes makes the whole country complicit.

  1. subject of investigations and prosecutions!

    USA TODAY’S BAKER SAYS THOSE SEEKING BUSH PROSECUTION DRIVEN BY “REVENGE”

    Wed, 2009-01-28 15:09. Criminal Prosecution

    By Sherwood Ross

    Hardly had President Bush slunk out of Washington before his apologist Ross Baker, the Rutgers political scientist, defamed those seeking his prosecution as motivated by “revenge.” They “should let their hate ‘die away,'” Baker advised in his January 27th USA Today article. Bush’s critics are mere low types “possessed of a kind of legalistic blood lust that can be satisfied only by criminalizing conduct of which they do not approve.”

    Nowhere does Baker credit the Bush posse now forming up with seeking justice after the frightful firestorm of death and destruction Bush called down upon Iraq. No, as far as Baker is concerned, Americans should make “allowances for errors in judgment” by the lying imbecile that killed a million human beings, drove four million from their homes, killed four thousand of our sons and daughters and wounded thirty thousand more.

    By accusing the posse of “hate,” Baker is standing reality on its head. It was Bush that was filled with hatred. It was Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Co. that did the killing. They were the thugs dripping with “blood lust.” They were the ones that ordered the torture of innocent human beings. What is it, if not hatred of the most despicable genre, to kidnap men off the streets with no warrant and imprison them half way around the world without charging them of any offense, not even for spitting on the sidewalk, and humiliate and torture them for years to the point of madness and suicide? . . . .

    I hope everyone takes a couple of minutes to read this article — it’s not very long, but it is jam-packed with “truths.”

    • Edger on January 29, 2009 at 15:26
      Author
    • OPOL on January 29, 2009 at 16:35

    we cannot allow this precedent to stand.  If we do, we are dooming ourselves to more of the same in the future.  Case closed.

    Oh, and thanks Edger as always.

    • Diane G on January 30, 2009 at 14:57

    Cut their nuts off and jam them down their lying throats…

    (metaphorically of course… looks over shoulder for NSA people) LOL!

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