The Lady of Justice

Is there a link between the record number of suicides in the U.S. Army, Bush war crimes, and the new secret weapon Bob Woodward touts as being at the heart of the military’s success in “the surge” in Iraq?

That it’s like any war. There’s always something - there’s a game-changer, a new development. In the early 20th century, it was the tank or the airplane. World War II, the Manhattan Project and the development of the Atomic Bomb. These [new] operations and techniques are not something where you’re going to see an explosion like an Atomic Bomb but they are incredibly effective. They are something that - as Pres. Bush said to people that I quote in the book, “We are killing them all. We are killing all of the people who are the leaders.” Now, it’s not literally “all,” but they are killing hundreds and hundreds of key people on the other side in this conflict.

Speculation on the weapon has ranged from a ultramagnetic lightening bolt that zaps targets into baby-sized molten masses to a new CTTL (Continuous Clandestine Tagging, Tracking, and Locating) technology.  Given the history of Bush’s violations against detainees, one has to wonder if the new weapon is resulting in “unwarranted civilian deaths” that could also be considered war crimes.

As always, soldiers pay the price for following the orders of their military commanders and civilian leadership.  While the scope of possible war crimes committed by the Bush Administration has been downplayed by the MSM, Eric Holder (Obama’s Attorney General) has to enforce the “rule of law” and let the course of his actions be dictated by the facts.  Justice demands this.  Cheney admitted to authorizing waterboarding, and while the Bush Administration did its best to avoid being prosecuted for offenses against the U.S. War Crimes Act, the evidence against them is overwhelming.  The scale of the crimes should not be underestimated.  While Obama sets forth a plan to close GITMO, there remains 15,000 illegally detained prisoners in Iraq and hundreds of others held in “black site” overseas prisons.  Jonathan Turley, constitutional law professor at George Washington University, is adamant that the Bush Administration should be charged for war crimes in its treatment of prisoners. He argues that to move forward without having the fortitude to bring justice to recent crimes, condemns us to repeat these crimes.

The spectacle of having war crimes charges brought to the likes of George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, and Dick Cheney by their own government would be unsettling to most Americans.  These men, after all, were primarily motivated by the desire to protect Americans at all costs.  So what should be done?

The author of one of the most cited human rights poems may provide the answer.  Pastor Martin Niemöller, wrote these words:

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out - because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak out for me.

However, Niemöller himself was guilty of anti-Semitism and of being complaisant during the rise of Nazism in Germany.  He expressed his guilt and remorse by signing The Stuttgard Declaration of Guilt with other Protestant Church leaders in 1945.  By doing this, the Protestant Churches in Germany were able to make a new beginning.

Similarly, evidence of war crimes should be presented against members of the Bush Administration.  Confronted with the real possibility of trials, convictions, and imprisonments, the defendants could be offered a Presidential pardon in return for signing a “Declaration of Guilt”. In this way, the Obama Administration could honor its stated commitment to “the rule of law” and restore America’s credibility in the world.