I don’t agree that Dick Cheney should be shipped to the Hague to answer for human rights violations. I don’t see any good reason why the United States’ courts can’t take care of adjudicating Cheney’s crimes. We ought to be able to enforce our own laws without relying on any international tribunal. Of course, Dick Cheney would be ill-advised to do any foreign travel once he is out of office.
When it comes to the really big violations of law committed by the Bush administration, it appears that the main culprits were Dick Cheney and his assistants, Scooter Libby and David Addington. There is also culpability in the Pentagon, including the former secretary, Donald Rumsfeld and several of his high-ranking assistants, like Douglas Feith and Paul Wolfowitz. Additionally, it appears that Harriet Miers, Karl Rove, and Alberto Gonzales committed high crimes in their management of the Department of Justice. I don’t doubt that a full airing of the facts combined with the fair implementation of the law, would land all of these individuals in federal prison.
Whether that is in the best interests of our country is probably open to debate. But I know what side I would be arguing. Authorizing torture, obstructing justice, perjury, violating treaties, and politicizing the Justice Department (including prosecuting false cases), are all crimes outside the normal leeway we give to any administration during wartime. There are some crimes, like expanded surveillance, that must be stopped but can be forgiven in a post-9/11 environment. Dick Cheney and several others committed many more crimes than that. They ought to be impeached and disqualified to ‘hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States.’ At a minimum.
Coincidence. Sen Patrick Leahy (D-VT) is on my radio, now taking calls from Vermonters on a variety of issues:
He was asked about war crimes prosecution for Bush and Cheney. Is that available? He said no, but noted other countries are prepared to bring charges…..that some persons from previous administrations avoid traveling to certain countries for fear of arrest.
On Joe Lieberman keeping his chairmanship after his betrayal..his attacks against Obama…the caller said “to reward Joe, that’s bipartisan taken too far.” If I were Joe, I wouldn’t count on Leahy’s support.
Leahy said “what Senator Lieberman did was beyond the pale, he reinforced the negatives and so called myths against Obama and had I done that I would not expect to remain chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.”
We want him shipped to the Hague because we want international institutions and regulations to have teeth, and that means giving them at least some jurisdiction over Americans.
I’d be surprised if anyone in the Bush Administration goes on trial, here or in the Hague, for their various atrocities and treacheries.
I’ll be fascinated how it all plays out, though.
It isn’t just all about America, folks!
Members of the Bush administration should certainly answer to U.S. courts for their domestic crimes.
It is deeply self-centered to deny their non-American victims the right to see them prosecuted in the international court for their crimes against humanity.
Too bad we can’t include Dem Congressional leadership for their complicity and refusal to investigate and prosecute.
If the US legal system helped the Bushies steal an election, I don’t see why it wouldn’t help them to evade justice. The courts are packed with right-wingers who rule on the basis of partisanship and ideology rather than law.
I wouldn’t be surprised if in a couple years it is reported that Mr. Cheney has had a heart attack and was summarily cremated, while in reality he gets to experience extraordinary rendition personally – I’m sure that Spain could dig back into the archives and gather a couple questions for him…
American politicians and business people somehow think they are above international law and can dodge the consequences of their crimes. I think that Cheney needs to be tried in the Hague, and imprisoned overseas. This will make future American despots and megalomaniac corporations think twice about killing other people for their resources..
“American politicians and business people somehow think they are above international law…“
More than a few otherwise very decent Americans appear to subscribe to this self-centered view as well. American exceptionalism in action.
yes yes indeed
If, as your title says, Retribution is Actually Justice, then how does that perspective inform the capital punishment question?