Last updated on January 4th, 2020 at 07:28 pm
A war crime is a serious violation of the laws and customs of war, or international humanitarian law, that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility. There are many examples of war crimes, such as murdering or mistreating prisoners of war or civilian internees, and under the auspices of the George W. Bush administration including then-vice president Dick Cheney, Americans committed war crimes when they tortured prisoners of war and Iraqi civilian internees.
Although it is common knowledge around the world and in America, President Obama had the unfortunate task of admitting at a press conference that America did torture detainees after 9/11. The President’s remarks were ahead of a soon-to-be-declassified Senate report about the CIA’s “enhanced interrogation program” (torture). In speaking about the CIA, the President said, “We tortured some folks. We did some things that were contrary to our values. A lot of those folks were working hard and under enormous pressure, and are real patriots. But having said all that, we did some things that were wrong.” Then, why in dog’s name are they not being prosecuted? Patriots or not, torture is a war crime, and in the same was Israel’s targeting of innocent Palestinian civilians was a war crime, Americans torturing prisoners of war and civilian detainees is a war crime; it does not matter if people were patriotic, afraid, angry, or following orders, torture is criminal.
Former vice president and convicted war criminal Dick Cheney’s daughter does not think torture is a violation of international law, and is furious at President Obama for announcing what the all the world, including Americans, will “officially” know when the Senate report is released. A report, by the way, that concluded the Bush/Cheney authorization of so-called ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ of detainees in the wake of the 9/11 attacks was ineffective and yielded no critical intelligence. Astonishingly, Ms. Cheney asserted that President Obama’s statement about the Bush-Cheney torture program “was an amazing and stunning display of a president, a leader, a Commander in Chief who seems to take no responsibility for anything that’s happened on his watch.” Cheney is as misinformed about what happened on the President’s watch as she is angry her war criminal father’s culpability in ordering torture will be “officially” exposed in the upcoming Senate report. For the record, George W. Bush was president from 2001-2009, and in 2002 Barack Obama served as an Illinois State Senator until 2005 when he was elected to the U.S. Senate.
According to Liz Cheney, “This president is an utter disgrace. He’s expending more time, more energy, more passion, more aggressive activity in targeting and going after patriots, heroes. CIA officers and others who kept is safe after 9/11. He’s lying about what they did, he’s slandering them, he went to Cairo and did it in 2009. Today he did it from the podium of the Oval Office. It’s a disgrace. It’s despicable.” The President also indirectly admitted America tortured detainees in 2011 when he told reporters that despite Republican presidential candidates praising war criminals who tortured prisoners, he believed, like international humanitarian agencies and the world court, that water boarding is torture.
As far as Cheney’s accusation that the President is lying about the Bush-Cheney torture program, he was announcing what the Senate report will expose, and what her despicable disgrace of a father admitted and would do again; authorize the torture of prisoners of war. In 2010 Dick Cheney admitted to authorizing torture, and just last March he told a sold-out crowd at American University he had no regrets and bragged that “If I would have to do it all over again, I would. The results speak for themselves.” Cheney is lying, of course, and the Senate report will indeed say that the CIA torture was “ineffective and yielded no credible intelligence.” Cheney also said that despite being convicted of war crimes with Bush, Rumsfeld, and company, “the accusations he’s a war criminal for using torture are not true.” This is despite his worthless piece of human waste daughter’s contention that President Obama is lying that the Bush administration authorized the CIA to torture prisoners of war and civilian detainees.
Now, Ms. Cheney also accused the President of expending more time, more passion, and more “aggressive activity” targeting and going after heroes and patriots, but regardless her filthy lies, the Obama administration has failed to aggressively prosecute anyone associated with the torture program. The Obama Administration also failed to hand over anyone, including Bush and Cheney, to the world court to be tried for their war crimes. War crimes, by the way, that America certainly prosecuted with extreme prejudice after World War II. At the beginning of his first term, the President said his administration was “looking forward” instead of backward when the issue of prosecuting the Bush war criminals was broached. That was over five years ago and now he is looking forward to a damning Senate report verifying what Bush and Cheney boasted about; committing war crimes by authorizing the use of torture against detainees.
Liz Cheney also claimed those who followed Bush-Cheney directives to torture detainees were “heroes,” but she labors under a grossly distorted definition of a “hero.” A hero does not hold captives at gunpoint, lash them to a table, and with assistance torture them. A hero, according to all dictionary definitions is “a character who, in the face of danger and adversity or from a position of weakness, displays abnormal courage in the face of danger and adversity and the will for self-sacrifice.” There is nothing whatsoever “heroic” or dangerous about two or three men holding a handcuffed prisoner down while another ‘hero’ tortures them, but in neo-con parlance, torturing a subdued human being is a hero.
It is likely that President Obama hated having to hold a press conference to announce that America, or as he noted “we,” tortured detainees. However, with the Senate report due out soon, he had little choice. In fact, it was reported here last week that CIA Director John Brennan admitted the intelligence agency spied on the Senate committee that investigated the Bush-Cheney war crimes to confound its findings to protect operatives guilty of following orders and torturing detainees. During war crime tribunals after World War II at The Hague, following orders was not a justification for torture, but this is America and what is a crime for a nation at war with this nation, is heroic and patriotic.
America lost whatever standing it had in the world after Bush launched a pre-emptive regime-changing war against Iraq, but it will never get that standing back as long as the admitted war criminals Bush, Cheney, and company are protected from facing justice for their war crimes. Criminals, and their families, typically express anger and uncontrollable rage when their crimes are exposed, and while Dick Cheney laughs off charges he is a war criminal and boasts he would do it again if he had the chance, his worthless daughter displayed the typical criminal’s offspring response and accused President Obama of lying about and slandering those who committed war crimes even after her criminal father admitted he authorized their war crimes. Although the Bush-Cheney criminal cabal have already been convicted of war crimes in absentia, they need to be arrested, sent to The Hague, and prosecuted for war crimes; if for no other reason than to incentivize the next CIA hero into refusing to commit a war crime in America’s name.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn't look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
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