No, George Bush's punishment should be his public and private shunning for the rest of his life. There should be no George W. Bush airports, battleships, libraries, junior high schools, or even dog parks. And no future president should ever use him in any capacity either public or private also. His legacy will be that he is the first president in the history of the United States to bring dishonor to our people, our nation, our flag, and our Constitution. But as for the rest of them staring with Cheney and working on down to the lowliest cog in this criminal conspiracy, I say put 'em in the dock. Not to hold the highest on the list accountable would be to say to every succeeding administration bent on achieving their own goals rather than the welfare of the nation: "Go on, even if you're caught nothing will happen". Let's play "What if?".
Step into my time machine and travel back with me to 1946. World War II ended more than a year ago and now the process of rebuilding Germany and the rest of Europe is underway. The Allied forces have decided that for the good of the world and to expedite Germany's restoration to the rule of law and democratic government it would be necessary to scrap the original plans for bringing to justice the architects and leaders of the war and the ethnic cleansing of all Europe of Jews, Slavs, Gypsies, and all other non-Aryan people (and homosexuals, too).
So the Nuremburg trials would not be held. Instead, the Allies would quietly "rehabilitate" the malefactors and re-educate them in order to facilitate their re-absorption into society. The reasoning for this egregious dereliction of duty to seek justice for the millions who had died in battle or slaughtered in death camps was complex and of itself political. The Allies felt that, in the end, the death or imprisonment of the perpetrators would only exacerbate the already chaotic conditions inside Germany. So for the sake of achieving the ultimate goal of restoring democracy the decision was made.
Let's return to 2008. Everything we have seen is obviously not what really happened. At least in terms of the major players in the Nuremberg trials. We can not possibly imagine that scenario as ever playing out. Why? Because the world's sense of outrage was so great that the need for justice being served was sine qua non to the continuation of the moral order. How could we possibly allow those responsible for all that suffering and death either through the waging of unjust war or by other means be permitted to escape unscathed. The rule of law could not be returned to Germany without the destroyers of it being called to account for their actions. What would we tell the children?
Unthinkable. Unimaginable. Impossible.
Yet, as Richard Clarke pointed out a while ago, we are about to see the fictional scenario from the past played out in the present. How do we let them return to "polite society"? Yes, we have so many problems facing us both domestically and internationally that we may be tempted to diminish its importance. But our country was founded upon the rule of law. And unless that rule of law is reinstated and reinforced we will have failed those who were the innocent victims of the Bush-Cheney conspiracy.
Paul Krugman in today's NY Times:
Last Sunday President-elect Barack Obama was asked whether he would seek an investigation of possible crimes by the Bush administration. "I don’t believe that anybody is above the law," he responded, but "we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards."
I’m sorry, but if we don’t have an inquest into what happened during the Bush years — and nearly everyone has taken Mr. Obama’s remarks to mean that we won’t — this means that those who hold power are indeed above the law because they don’t face any consequences if they abuse their power.
Now, it’s true that a serious investigation of Bush-era abuses would make Washington an uncomfortable place, both for those who abused power and those who acted as their enablers or apologists. And these people have a lot of friends. But the price of protecting their comfort would be high: If we whitewash the abuses of the past eight years, we’ll guarantee that they will happen again.
Meanwhile, about Mr. Obama: while it’s probably in his short-term political interests to forgive and forget, next week he’s going to swear to "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." That’s not a conditional oath to be honored only when it’s convenient.
And to protect and defend the Constitution, a president must do more than obey the Constitution himself; he must hold those who violate the Constitution accountable. So Mr. Obama should reconsider his apparent decision to let the previous administration get away with crime. Consequences aside, that’s not a decision he has the right to make.
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