Okay, so slowly, but surely we are moving toward a post president Bush world. Thank god! Many of us will breathe a sigh of relief when we reach that point. But the question of the decade then (if not the century), is what happens to George W. Bush and his cronies. What happens to Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle and John Bolton to name a few? Will they go free and be permitted to carry on schmoozing, plotting, and fund raising in the circles of the American power elite as many of them have been since the Reagan years? Or will they be tried, convicted and imprisoned as the criminals they obviously are?
Every day, people in America are thrown in jail for relatively small offences like possessing pot, shoplifting and stealing cars. Bush and his cronies pushed for and engaged in an illegal war that has left close to a million people dead and thousands more disabled and mutilated. They lied to other branches of government and to the American people repeatedly to support their military campaign. They oversaw and implemented programs of unlawful confinement and torture that ruined (and continue to ruin) hundreds of people's lives. They are directly responsible for the slaughter of not just Iraqis, but Americans as well. Are these crimes not vastly more serious than petty crimes such as those mentioned above that can still land you in jail? If so, one would think that these people should go to jail for a long, long time.
One thing is almost for sure, if these guys get off with a mere slap on the wrist (or worse yet, no reprimand at all), they, or people very much like them will be back to bite us in the future. If they get away with this, it will be a clear signal to them and other right-wing war mongers like them that there's no reason not to try this again (once the dust settles and they've managed to install another malleable Republican president in the Whitehouse). If they get away with this, count on another Iraq or Vietnam within the next 10 or 20 years. These people believe in US world domination at all most any cost (if you don't believe me check out their own websites like "Project for a New American Century" or "American Enterprise Institute") and they will continue working towards that goal behind the scenes until they are stopped.
Every day, people in America are thrown in jail for relatively small offences like possessing pot, shoplifting and stealing cars. Bush and his cronies pushed for and engaged in an illegal war that has left close to a million people dead and thousands more disabled and mutilated. They lied to other branches of government and to the American people repeatedly to support their military campaign. They oversaw and implemented programs of unlawful confinement and torture that ruined (and continue to ruin) hundreds of people's lives. They are directly responsible for the slaughter of not just Iraqis, but Americans as well. Are these crimes not vastly more serious than petty crimes such as those mentioned above that can still land you in jail? If so, one would think that these people should go to jail for a long, long time.
One thing is almost for sure, if these guys get off with a mere slap on the wrist (or worse yet, no reprimand at all), they, or people very much like them will be back to bite us in the future. If they get away with this, it will be a clear signal to them and other right-wing war mongers like them that there's no reason not to try this again (once the dust settles and they've managed to install another malleable Republican president in the Whitehouse). If they get away with this, count on another Iraq or Vietnam within the next 10 or 20 years. These people believe in US world domination at all most any cost (if you don't believe me check out their own websites like "Project for a New American Century" or "American Enterprise Institute") and they will continue working towards that goal behind the scenes until they are stopped.
That's why it's crucial that Bush and his cronies are actually brought to justice. These individuals must be made to answer for their criminal arrogance and deceit. Those of us that see this bogus war as the crime it is, need to seriously push toward this goal. We need to make sure that justice is actually done (unlike in Nixon's case) and that it is done swiftly (unlike in Pinochet's case). For the sake of the dead, the living and the unborn, let's nip this malignancy in the bud. And besides, even Paris Hilton had to go to jail.
6 comments:
In my alternate reality "just world" Bush and his cronies would be tried, convicted and imprisoned.
However, I am not very hopeful about this world that we live in. It seems that the powerful rarely have to pay for their actions and can act almost with impunity.This is why some of us flip between anger and depression when viewing world events. Then we seek mindless distractions because it is all too much.
That doesn't mean that people shouldn't struggle to achieve justice. But it is difficult to know exactly what can be done and how we can realistically achieve it.
Why don't you mind your own business? Your a canadian for Christ's sake. Don't tell us what to do. Do we tell you what to do?
Well shucks, sorry to offend you but I think it is my business. It's the whole world's business. When the leaders of the most powerful nation in the history of the world decide to attack another country because, essentially, they don't like that country's leader and when they do so against the wishes of the rest of the world and against international law, it becomes everyone's business. The fact that I'm a Canadian is irrelevent; I'm a citizen of this world and the peace and stablility of this world are clearly threatened by nutbar ideologues like Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld, who arrogantly assume that they have the right to use military force unilaterally whenever it suits their narrow interests. These guys and their neocon buddies need to be shown that this approach is totally unacceptable to the rest of humanity.
I believe that this weird notion held by a minority of Americans that "we are the most morally superior people in the world. Therefore, we should be the world's police force", is not only ridiculous, it's dangerous. A careful, honest study of American foreign policy over the last 60 years will demonstrate this point. No one country has the best system, the highest morals or all of the answers to the world's problems. There are things to value and things to criticize in all most any culture. We need to work together as a global community to sort this shit out, instead of having one dude standing on top of the pile swinging a big stick, telling everybody else how it's gonna be. People resent that kind of treatment and eventually, they'll bring the prick down....
And yes, for the record, you (I'm assuming you're an American) do tell us what to do. Or rather, your governments tell us what to do. You told us to stop manufacturing our own fighter jet (the Avro Arrow) and we did. You told us to let American companies in to gobble up Canadian companies (NAFTA)and we did. You told us to help you clean up the mess that Reagan made in Afghanistan (the arming of the Mujahadeen/Taliban) and we still are. You told us not to legalize pot (though poll after poll have shown that the majority of Canadians believe it should be) and we haven't. The list goes on and on.
Don't get me wrong though. I am not anti-American. Some of my favorite people are American and I have family that are American. There are thousands of really cool Americans. They just don't happen to hold any political power.
In regards to Anonymous' comments-
if you come from East Timor, you can only legitimately comment on what happens there. If you are a resident of Lichtenstein, well then...you may only comment on what happens within the confines of your postage-stamp sized country. Otherwise, keep your mouth shut. Yeah, right. We should all be blind, ignorant and apathetic about the goings on in countries other than our own and the impact of these actions in the word that we all exist in.
Hey will NAFTA allow me to import outhouses? Although with the Canadian Petro-dollar, I guess it would be foolish to import outhouse from the US. I'm looking for something in American Walnut. I tried Alder in the past, but I found it to smell too much like cat pee.
Hey Gerry, the resolution to bring Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld and powell "The White house Five" to trial for their crimes is totally inconceivable to Americans. I'm beginning to understand how these people differ from the rest of us. Their view of how they perceive their role in the world is an elite attitude of us and them, where the standards to which we all have to abide, only apply to the world outside of America. The crimes that they commit abroad are not seen as crimes, simply because they are Americans. They have convinced themselves of their unquestionable rihteousness whenever they engage themselves in a war. The American people could never believe that they or their government could be acting on the basis none other than what is right for the world and if you question or impede, you are the enemy or unpatriotic or anti American or whatever,depending on the circumstances.
When McCain speaks about Iraq and how to turn a disastrous effort into a success, he only equates victory as something self serving American interests. He doesn't consider the plight of Iraqi's and what we have done to their country as being a relevant factor in assessing success and neither do most Americans. The impact on America is so minimal in comparrisson to what Iraq has endured. The death toll is in the tens of thousands but all you here is the four thousand American deaths, as though it is only the loss of American life that is relevant. The target was Saddam Hussein, not the people of Iraq but the American attitude toward the suffereing of non Americans is of no consequence and not a factor in serving out their foreign policy.
The Iraq war is unpopular in America, only because it is deemed as being costly and unnecessary. The total self absorbed ignorant and supremacist delusion these people live, would not equate anything their government does a war crime. This is a designation of judgement reserved for others only.
Both John McCain and Condoleeza Rice publically denounced the actions of Russia against Georgia. They said, It is unacceptable in the twenty first century for a country to use that sort of aggression against another. This is a perfect example of the American self delusion that enables them to commit the crimes they do without acknowledgement. What we do is not the same as when others do it. Reminds me of religion. God help us.
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