Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

"I want to applaud `Hold Bush to the Law in Terror-Suspect Cases' (September 8 editorial) in which the Times called on Congress to hold the President to the law concerning the treatment of those arrested for allegations of terrorism.  Too many Americans have died defending principles now enshrined as rights in our Constitution."

Ann Bergstrom of Shoreline, Washington weighed in as well:

"President Bush wants the right to shield U.S. personnel from being prosecuted for war crimes... Hard to understand? ... You just have to redefine torture out of law, then it's legal torture.

"That's probably why (former Secretary of State) General Colin Powell opposes the plan along with former prisoner of war and Senator John McCain.  I'm sure my father, a former World war Two prisoner of war, would oppose it too.  But then maybe he had it easy.  Because even Adolf Hitler allowed prisoners to be protected by the Geneva Convention."

A front page story of the Seattle Times in that same September 18 issue told how the Bush prisoner of war policy operates in Iraq, which even UN Secretary General Kofi Anan today admitted is on the verge of civil war.

The story appeared under an attention getting headline: "14,000 U.S. Detainees Sit in `War on Terror' Legal Limbo":

"Baghdad, Iraq - In the few short years since the first shackled Afghan shuffled off to Guantanamo, the U.S. military has created a global network of overseas prisoners, its islands of high security keeping 14,000 detainees beyond the reach of established law.

"Disclosures of torture and long-term arbitrary detention have won rebuke from leading voices, including the UN Secretary General and the Supreme Court.  But the bitterest words come from inside the system, which is the size of several U.S. penitentiaries."

With all of the traditional constitutional safeguards being shattered with impunity by the Bush Administration, it is understandable why they are terrified of Geneva Convention rules regarding conducting war holding them accountable for 250,000 dead in the illegal Iraq War.  

At the same time a green light was given to Israel, supplying that nation with cluster bombs to slaughter and demolish the infrastructure of the beautiful nation of Lebanon.  The Bush neocons know what they have done.  It is apparent why the Middle East is such a tinderbox.

The shock and awe is what the world feels watching the nightly television news.  Have U.S. voters wised up?  Are they aware what Bush has done that could trigger a nuclear Armageddon?

That event will give Americans something more significant to watch than NASCAR dads observing speeding cars racing around tracks, as well as football, baseball, and rock concerts.  That's for sure!

Wake up before it's too late.  This Administration thirsts for conflict with Iran!

Ancient nations such as Greece and Rome, as well as in modern times Nazi Germany, all tried to take on the entire world.  These powers collapsed.  Is self-destruction the new American dream?