Had Obama announced an intention to prosecute yesterday would that have reversed your view?

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

Some people are upset because they have a strong reaction on all things torture.

Some people (like me) are less than upset because they consider prosecuting people who the prosecutor knows will not be properly convicted to be a gross a violation of our system in the same police-state class as warrant-less wire-tapping, torture and the rest of it.

But let's be real... a LOT of folks are reflexively defending whatever Obama says or does categorically and would have defended prosecutions with the same vigor had the announcement been different.

Anyone who was agnostic yesterday morning then decided prosecutions are vital simply to disagree with Obama is an intellectual pervert.

And anyone who was agnostic yesterday morning but became an anti-prosecution advocate to agree with Obama is an intellectual pervert.

So the question is, if you are currently haranguing others for their crass stupidity is favoring prosecutions... If Obama had announced an intention to seek prosecutions would you currently be denouncing it as crazy, a danger to the progressive agenda, etc.?

And the honest answers rolled in...

[Peacetrain]

1. Honestly..that is a very good question..

I will give you my single perspective. I think we are lucky to have gotten the memos published in the first place. I know that it was general knowledge, but that does not hold up in court.

Words on paper you can hold in your hand do.

My biggest fear, is the Abu Ghraib (sp?) scenario. The lowest of the low did the deed that was so despicable. They got punished, but all the energy went to getting them and the real culprits went free. To continue the black ops prisons etc. To continue the illegal surveillance of all of us.

Here is my dilemma.. If congress, and we and the media, do not proceed to demand that the higher ups be held accountable for giving orders, then what is the point.

There is no defense in letting the guilty go free, unless you can somehow get the kingpins behind them.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

2. I generally agree with you

And since I am 99.99% sure that George Bush and Dick Cheney will not spend the rest of their lives in prison I have never been all that excited about going after subordinates.

Justice will not be done in any event so why compound the inequity of the situation? (If Hitler had negotiated a luxurious retirement on an island somewhere in 1944 and then we started prosecuting concentration camp guards I would be against it.)

And I honestly feel such prosecutions under US law would be invalid. (For actions within the DoJ findings of legality.)

But the analysis of not prosecuting as politically smart and thus good is repellent to me.

At some point you have to do the right thing and face the consequences. This might not be that point, but smart politics is not a universal defense.