I don’t keep up with these things, but I remember that a couple of years ago Donald Rumsfeld felt compelled to abort a trip to France for fear of getting prosecuted as a war criminal. Now Bush has likewise cancelled a trip to Switzerland for the same reason. The problem is that these foreign countries who are part of ‘Old Europe’ actually feel somewhat obligated to honor the treaties they have signed that outlaw the use of torture. I kind of doubt that either France or Switzerland would actually follow through and arrest our former leaders, but it’s probably best not to test that theory.
What’s sad about this is that we just gave these folks a mulligan. Our former president has not, and probably will not, because he cannot, visit Europe for the rest of his life. He’s no different than Augusto Pinochet. And, yet, he’s a relatively moderate voice in this country’s right. If he ran for senate, he’d probably get a primary challenge from the right. I can almost guarantee you that the next Republican president will be much. much worse than Bush. It’s unlikely that they will have any moral compass whatsoever when it comes to repeating Bush’s sins, but they’ll take it up several notches by rejecting the idea that the federal government has any legitimate role at all outside of national security issues.
It’s the biggest problem facing our country.