Bush and Crimes Against Humanity
The trajectories of George W. Bush and Al Gore since the fateful election in 2000 could hardly be more divergent. The once highflying Bush has tumbled from the sky like a dodo while Gore has risen from the ashes like a phoenix. Tragically, America’s fortunes have been hitched to the incompetent bungling Bush who has single-handedly managed to destroy America’s reputation, moral character, financial health, and military preparedness.
Bush, of course, still clings to the delusion that his presidency and the decision to invade Iraq will be vindicated by posterity. It is worth noting, in this vein, that Reich Marshall Hermann Goring once boasted that future generations would honor him and his fellow henchmen with monuments. Needless to say, Goring’s predictions regarding his future place in history have proven every bit as empty as the Nazis’ wartime propaganda.
The Bush administration and its league of apologists in the media have generally scoffed at any suggestion that the president and his aides might guilty of war crimes, but a growing body of evidence indicates that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales, and David Addington knowingly sanctioned torture and other abuses that amounted to same kind of gross violations of the Geneva Conventions that leading Nazis were prosecuted for at the Nuremberg Trials. Put simply, the concept of “command responsibility,” which implicitly recognizes that political and military leaders are responsible for the moral tone that is set within the chain of command, directly implicates the Bush White House to some of the most heinous human rights violations ever committed in our nation’s history.
“There is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account.” That’s the dispiriting conclusion of Major General Antonio Taguba (Ret.) in his preface to a report issued by Physicians for Human Rights.
Bush’s decision to scrap the Geneva Conventions is not just immoral; it’s self-defeating and stupid. Innocent individuals have been incarcerated and tortured without due process, which has sullied the image of the United States. And at least one false confession – a subject who told interrogators what they wanted to hear, namely that Saddam possessed WMD – helped mislead America into the Iraq War. The Bush administration claims (without evidence) that waterboarding has saved lives, but most counter terrorism experts agree that coerced confessions are inherently unreliable.
The Supreme Court has finally – and repeatedly – slapped down the Bush administration’s legal rationales for denying enemy combatants even a modicum of legal safeguards. The next president, whether it is John McCain or Barack Obama, will represent a repudiation of the moral vacuity the Bush administration has displayed in regards to detainees. There is no doubt that Bush and Cheney have undermined the values they purport to defend. Their contorted logic and reasoning for denying terror suspects even a minimum of legal rights has not only made a mockery of the rule of law, it shocked the conscience of the world. The magnitude of Bush’s failures, however, extends to nearly every aspect of our national life: the reckless invasion of Iraq, the incompetence of Katrina, the failure to do anything about global warming and America’s crumbling infrastructure, and the administration’s fiscal irresponsibility. A staggering 84% of the public now agrees that the Bush administration has taken the country in the wrong direction. Historians will likely be even more scathing; most already concur that the Bush administration represents one of the lowest points in our Republic.
In 2000 the Supreme Court intervened to thwart a statewide recount in Florida. The Court’s reasoning was right out of Alice in Wonderland: there was not enough time for the recount to proceed, a fact the Court itself had made true by stopping the recount the day before. Justice delayed is justice denied. The verdict of history is taking shape: the Court didn’t just install the wrong man; the majority’s sophistic reasoning helped put in place a war criminal.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Monday, March 31, 2008
The Bush Administration Announces Capture of Bin Laden
(AP) – April 1st 2008
In a stunning development, the White House announced today the capture of 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden. The apprehension of the world’s most wanted terrorist marks an extraordinary reversal for the Bush administration, which has drawn considerable flack over its handling of the war on terror, the economy, and the conflict in Iraq. Supporters of President Bush are hailing the capture as a “masterstroke.” And new details are emerging that are sure to change the perception Americans have of their president, who has endured historically low approval ratings while being maligned by critics as an “incompetent bungler.”
Bush’s image is certain to change as White House officials are confirming that the President personally commanded the Special Forces team that tracked bin Laden to his mountain lair, and then executed the daring daylight raid that captured the notorious evil doer. Indeed, in perhaps the most extraordinary twist of this amazing turn of events, it has been established that the “President Bush” who has governed in Washington since September 29th, 2001 – the president Americans have come to loath, despise, and revile – is actually a double. In fact, while Bush’s stand-in was donning a flight suit, bungling Katrina, and mishandling Iraq the real President Bush has been doggedly leading a crack team of Green Berets as they tracked the most notorious terrorist through some of the challenging and treacherous mountain biking terrain in the world.
Harry Smitten Jr., the versatile character actor who impersonated a seemingly hapless President Bush – “the role of a lifetime,” as he described it – bore such a close physical resemblance to the actual President Bush that not even the First Lady noticed the difference. Indeed, the ruse was so top-secret the president’s father, George H.W. Bush, wasn’t privy to the deception either. “He seemed a little clueless when it came to fly-fishing, golf, and horseshoes,” the elder Bush confessed. “Heck, I can’t tell you how many times he poked me in the eye with his fishing pole, shanked a drive, or drove into a ditch with the golf cart. “But I chalked it up to the immense pressures of being Commander-in-Chief. Gosh dang if this whole thing doesn’t put a lump in a dad’s throat. God bless my boy. And God bless America, now that we don’t have to worry about Obama anymore”
Grainy video of bin Laden’s capture quickly made it on to Youtube, providing incontrovertible proof of Bush’s success in bringing America’s most wanted fugitive to justice. The clip, which has already attracted nearly as many viewers as Brittany Spears’ latest breakdown, shows the real President Bush in combat fatigues single-handedly wrestling bin Laden to the ground in a dank cave. A spokesperson for al-Qaeda confirmed the authenticity of the video, but accused Bush of using an “illegal chokehold.” An administration official disagreed, insisting that the chokehold was legal in both the WWF and the UFC. The official later released a secret Justice Department memo, signed by former Attorney General Gonzales, which officially scrapped the Marquis of Queensbury rules that govern hand-to-hand combat involving a head of state and enemy combatants. Gonzales dismissed the Marquis of Queensbury rules as “quaint” in signing off in favor of the no-holds barred “rules” associated with ex-cons using mixed martial arts in cage fighting as seen on Pay Per View.
The dramatic circumstances surroundings bin Laden’s capture is certain to alter the political landscape. Already, Hillary is ducking for cover and Obama is taking legal steps to have his name changed to Michael Jackson. Not surprisingly, Bush’s approval ratings have soared and the Dow Jones greeted the news by rising 1,200 points minutes after Martha Stewart rang the opening bell on Wall Street. “This is the end of the Bush Recession,” quipped one market analyst, who predicted that paper gains in the stock market would soon wipe out losses in the housing market. Likewise, military experts now foresee a quick resolution to the situation Iraq as Al Sadr, the Sunni insurgents, the Shiite militias, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad recognize that they are no longer up against the most incompetent military commander since George Armstrong Custer.
Presidential scholars, too, are marveling at the stunning turnaround in Bush’s reputation. As historian Doris Kearns Goodwin put it, “Here’s a guy who looked for all the world like the biggest loser in American presidential history, but then suddenly the country realizes we’ve witnessed one of the most audacious cover-ups and successful character reversals that ever played out on the world stage. George W. Bush is certain to go down in history as one of the boldest, most creative, and beloved presidents in American history.” And what does Harry Smitten Jr., the actor who played his part to perfection as a bumbling boob of a president have to say about his role in all of this? Mr. Smitten didn’t have any immediate comment, except to wish everyone a happy April Fool’s Day
