Sunday, December 21, 2008

International criminals

There is pressure building on the incoming Obama Justice Department to somehow adjudicate the war crimes committed by the George W. Bush administration, starting at the top. The political problem is that these crimes also implicate leading Democrats, thereby rendering true justice nearly impossible.

This is another compelling piece of evidence for the fact that we are living under a post-constitutional government, no longer responsible to the rule of law. If we don’t hold our leaders to the same standard of justice as the rest of America’s citizens, or any other of the world’s criminals, I don’t see how anyone could argue that this is a functioning democracy. Equality under the law is democracy’s cornerstone.

But in our post-constitutional, post-Bush v. Gore age, we already know that the judiciary is just as politicized as the other two branches of government. And under a political system dominated by the military-industrial complex, there doesn’t seem to be any such thing as a war crime. Americans were torturing people in Vietnam and Korea. The officer in charge at the My Lai massacre, where hundreds of women and children died, served three years of house arrest.

The defense industry protects its own, and always has.

It’s hard to see how a president could get a fair verdict in this country, in any case. As David Sirota notes, “presidentialism,” which confers on that office an elevated, almost sacred character, is a basic element in America’s civil religion. We’re all brainwashed with the idea that the president is somebody who needs rows of heavily-armed storm troopers lining Pennsylvania Avenue to protect him—rather than somebody like Thomas Jefferson, who walked alone back to his roominghouse to have lunch with the other boarders, after his inauguration. We’ve given the president the “emperor” status suitable to an empire. Where would you find a jury of his “peers,” outside of the establishment accessories to the crimes, like the Democrats?

To spare ourselves the national agony of suffering through either the exoneration or trial of the Bush war criminals, the United States should join the International Criminal Court and turn them over to that body. The justice would be at the very least poetic, given Bush’s unrelenting opposition to the ICC. But putting Bush and company before an international tribunal would also help repair exactly the damage that was done to America’s international reputation with the barbarous scandals of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.

Handing the criminals over to the ICC would mean, in a way that no other action would, that this nation hereby agrees to abide by the international rule of law. It would allow America to once again take a place among civilized nations.

It can also be a rallying point for those who think that we cannot have a full restoration of the rule of law in this nation without some accounting for those who led America down a very dark path. If it is politically impossible to put war criminals on trial in this country (except for low-level “bad apples” who made the mistake of filming themselves in the unfortunate act of following orders), then the only resolution is to turn them over to the international community, for the sake of justice. That’s the direction a President Obama needs to be led.

America needs to rejoin the international community by recognizing the global jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. That act alone has the potential to mark the beginning of the end of “American exceptionalism.”

It could also mean the beginning of justice for American war criminals.

3 comments:

Vic Cebollero said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Vic Cebollero said...

As the old Billy Joel song, Piano Man, goes "...well son I believe this is killing me, as the smile ran away from his face ... so sing us a song mellow piano man, sing us a song to night ... we're now in the mood for a melody and you've got us feeling alright".

Like the folks at the bar listening to the Piano Man, is what we as nation have become. We have lost our constitution and that is the same as saying we have lost ourselves. After all, isn't the constitution really what constitutes us?

So what are we now that our constitution is no more?

We are now the USSR, or the UNITED STATES SOCIALIST REPUBLIC, how ironic that we became the pseudo antithesis of yesterdays popular Hegelian Dialectic. The classic and perfect completion of the last phase by the worldwide banking cartel.

I agree that it is impossible to bring justice to system that now is controlled by the forces many of our founding fathers tried to escape. But alas the war for independence never really ended an is being waged today over the internet. Bullets have morphed into thoughts and thoughts are deadly when one dares to think outside the holographic illusions promulgated by unseen forces lurking behind the images of corporate talking heads utilizing mind control techniques, such as Neural Linguistic Programing (NLP).

Take a long look in the mirror, America! and tell me what you see. Because the images of Washington, Jefferson, and Jackson have been replaced with those of Morgan, Warburg, and Rockefeller bowing before the "Crown".

As Mussolini infamously said, "Fascism is the merger of corporation and government". So who's the corporation that has merged with our government? The answer can be found on every Federal Reserve Note.

"Give me liberty or give me death" should be the war cry of the "Masses yearning to be free".

May God Bless America by helping us awaken the true patriots shackled with chains of debt and blinded by illusion.

I will close with the story of Benjamin Franklin who was asked by a woman, "So what have you given us?" Franklin responded, "we have given you a Republic, if you an can hold on to it".

Vic Cebollero said...

One last comment.

I wonder what will happens if the USA defaults on its loans back to the central bankers?

Some believe that Maritime International Law will prevail and all collateral's given to the World Bank will be confiscated legally. According to one historical researcher, many legal terms come from Maritime Law, such as: The currency (current), Banks (waters banks), Birth (boat slips). A judge sits on a bench (bank) and decides charges (debt).

Others say that the USA became a corporation after our Civil War which was instigated by the central banks to create massive debts. Not too long after the US Constitution was amended to read, THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES AMERICA, from The Constitution For The United States of America, and we became legal employees an no longer Sovereign Citizens. After the incorporation all births were duly noted with our names in CAPITAL LETTERS.

More information can be found via JordanMaxwell.com who's the source of some of my statements.

Some believe that our gold reserves have been already depleted and Fort Knox is empty with all the gold transferred to NYC and London. According to others, our unconstitutional federal government has used our national parks as collateral. I suppose if International Maritime law prevails we will witness a breakup of the USA as foreign armies move in.

It all may sound far fetched but then how bad are things really? The important thing is that we do our own research and hold our government accountable in accordance to our original constitution.

I only pose these questions to stimulate thought and not draw conclusions.

My guess is that another banking holiday will be declared soon after Obama takes office. Although one could point the finger at the Bush administration, I would argue that he was only executing the directives of the "shadow government".

Who's to blame? The rapist or those who allowed the rapes to occur with impunity? Wall street? or those who handed over the combination to the vaults saying "they can regulate themselves"?

Have we become that pathetically naive?

Did we really spend $trillions on defense, and intelligence to see somebody throw shoes at our President?