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We Do Have Laws Against War Crimes, At Least We Do Right Now
by James Glaser
The Bush administration found out that the Republicans passed a law against war crimes a few years ago, and that has them worried. Jeffery Smith of the Washington Post writes, "The Bush administration has drafted amendments to a war crimes law that would eliminate the risk of prosecution for political appointees, CIA officers, and former military personnel for humiliating or degrading war prisoners, according to U.S. officials and a copy of the amendments." The amendments would "narrow the scope" of prosecutions for things like torture, murder, rape, and hostage taking. Earlier in the Iraq war, American troops would take women and children hostage in hopes of having their husbands and fathers turn themselves in. Also something like a hundred prisoners have been killed while in our custody, a couple dozen of them have been listed as homicides. George Bush's whole time in office has been filled with the torture of prisoners, and I guess we must have been raping some of them, because George wants to protect his people from being charged for that crime, too. What the Bush Administration is trying to do is add so much new language into the War Crimes law that any good lawyer can get around it. Jeffery Smith quotes Retired Rear Adm. John D. Hutson, the Navy's top uniformed lawyer from 1997 to 2000 and now dean of the Franklin Pierce Law Center as saying, "Don't trust the motives of any lawyer who changes a statutory provision that is short, clear, and to the point and replaces it with something that is much longer, more complicated, and includes exceptions within exceptions." That is the very thing the White House is trying to do. Now that they found out there is a law on the books against the war crimes they have committed, they want to muddy up the waters. They know it would be an admission of guilt to try and repeal the law, but if they can make it so technicalities can get them off, well that is just fine and dandy. George Bush has his legal staff working overtime trying to insulate him from any legal entanglements he may be in, because he knows if the Democrats take either the House or the Senate, he will be facing Impeachment charges.
From http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/alerts/95, "House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member John Conyers (D-MI) released "Constitution in Crisis," a report identifying 26 specific laws and regulations implicated by the Bush Administration." George Bush is just a terrible president. The man talks about God, his faith, and how he is bringing peace and freedom to the people of the Middle East. A few weeks ago George could have stopped hundreds of people from being killed if only he would have called a stop to Israel's invasion of Lebanon, but he didn't. What he did was to endorse Israel's attack, and provided them with more bombs to use. George Bush has made a constant assault on our Constitution, while taking freedom from the American people. Most people the world over know that because of George Bush and his push to attack Iraq, hundreds of thousands of innocent people have been killed or maimed there. Nobody knows how many will suffer a lifetime of psychological problems from the years of war. Over a million innocent Iraqis have had to leave their homes. We have destroyed whole cities, and if you watch the news, you will see that Iraq is covered with rubble from Bush's war. George Bush is a total embarrassment to the American people, and a target for hatred from the rest of the world. America has the opportunity, being the world's only super power, to do good all over this globe, but the Bush administration is squandering this time in our history. |
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