http://www.atlargely.com/atlargely/2009/08/to-the-hague.htmlAugust 25, 2009
To the Hague...
Glenn Greenwald has written what should be the opening statement by prosecutors of war crimes committed by the Bush-Cheney regime. I cannot do the piece justice by posting snips, so I urge you to read it. But there is one paragraph that pretty much summarizes the crimes we are talking about here, including, murder, assault, kidnapping, and so forth. Actual crimes which appear to not have meaning because the people this was done to are somehow less than human in the eyes of the new Americana.
Here is what Glenn writes:
To those blithely dismissing all of this as things that don't seem particularly bothersome, I'd say two things:
"(1) The fact that we are not really bothered any more by taking helpless detainees in our custody and (a) threatening to blow their brains out, torture them with drills, rape their mothers, and murder their children; (b) choking them until they pass out; (c) pouring water down their throats to drown them; (d) hanging them by their arms until their shoulders are dislocated; (e) blowing smoke in their face until they vomit; (f) putting them in diapers, dousing them with cold water, and leaving them on a concrete floor to induce hypothermia; and (g) beating them with the butt of a rifle -- all things that we have always condemend as "torture" and which our laws explicitly criminalize as felonies ("torture means. . . the threat of imminent death; or the threat that another person will imminently be subjected to death, severe physical pain or suffering . . .") -- reveals better than all the words in the world could how degraded, barbaric and depraved a society becomes when it lifts the taboo on torturing captives.
(2) As I wrote rather clearly, numerous detainees died in U.S. custody, often as a direct result of our "interrogation methods." Those who doubt that can read the details here and here. Those claiming there was no physical harm are simply lying -- death qualifies as "physical harm" -- and those who oppose prosecutions are advocating that the people responsible literally be allowed to get away with murder."
This is exactly why I have argued for the release of the all of the documentary footage and photos. Because until the people we did this to are "humanized" for the American public, no justice will be delivered for them and no redemption for us.
I would also like to add that there are those who are directly involved in these crimes (who are) demanding no investigation take place. How convenient for them. If only O.J. Simpson had thought of that, he would have entirely bypassed his own trial.
The facts are that people who are implicated in a crime don't get to argue against the investigation of that crime. Dick Cheney's opinions on such matters don't need to be published or presented. Let the evidence speak for itself and if Cheney then chooses to, he can take the stand and testify. But to allow him to argue against an investigation into crimes he is implicated in is damaging to our nation and to our actual values, such as rule of law.
I assume that we will shortly be seeing Lizzie Cheney making the TV rounds wearing her Electra complex for the world to see.
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