Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

"Also, two advocacy groups, the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights First, have prepared detailed reports for the new administration calling for criminal investigations into accusations of abuse of detainees.

"In April, Obama told the Philadelphia Daily News that people needed to distinguish `between really dumb policies and policies that rise to the level of criminal activity.'"

Certainly that statement represents common sense.  But going to war is defined quite clearly in the Geneva Convention rules of conduct.  It is clearly spelled out whether a cause is legitimate to launch a war, which the U.S. had agreed to.

Therefore, to be objective and fair, perhaps the only thing to do is begin a thorough investigation of every individual who was responsible for getting the U.S. into the Iraq War debacle.

What is puzzling to many individuals is to think we live in a nuclear war era, where traditional ways of nations settling differences was to go to war.  Now in the nuclear era, only a fool would fantasize that launching an unjustified war will suffer no consequences.

The consequence of the Iraq War has launched an international nuclear arms race.  It has not brought the U.S. closer to peace, or really resolved disagreements.  

Since the Iraq War began, India and Egypt have obtained nuclear power.  South Korea and Iran are developing nuclear power.

As if mixing things up in the Middle East wasn't generating enough death and destruction for the wildest war-oriented devotees, Bush and his co-authority figure Condoleezza Rice have revved up Air Force One repeatedly to whiz around the globe while inflaming Europe.  How?  Very simple -- negotiate planting rocket launching pads on Czech and Polish borders.

Dear God!  We thought the Cold War was over!  Reagan's memorable speech at the Berlin Wall, imploring, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" is played on television endlessly.

Now, the dreadful leadership of Bush and Rice ignited rage in Russia by getting the Czech Republic and Poland to agree to placing rocket launching pads on their borders facing Russia.  All this they claim is to be able to reach Iran, because an Iranian leader has at times spoken very unfavorably regarding Israel.

Iran responds by saying that with the U.S. conducting wars on both sides of their nation, in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as the U.S. having supplied Iraq's Saddam Hussein with weapons to kill Iranians in the Iraq-Iran War, it must be prepared to defend Iran and its citizens from death.

Fortunately President Nicolas Sarkozy of France has spoken with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to see if an agreement can be reached whereby the Czech Republic and Poland will not place rocket launching pads on Russian borders, eliminating an issue that would otherwise make Russians fearful.

Wasn't the unneeded Iraq War enough for Bush, Cheney and Rice?  Why did they have to stir up Russian fears as well as igniting fear, hanging like a frightful fog all over the Middle East.

The Times article by Charlie Savage says that Truman set the precedent of secrecy back in 1953:

"When a congressional committee subpoenaed Harry Truman in 1953, nearly a year after he left office, he made a starling claim:  Even though he was no longer president, the Constitution still empowered him to block subpoenas.

"'If the Constitution of separation of powers and the independence of the presidency is to have any validity at all, it must be equally applicable to a president after his term of office has expired,' Truman wrote the committee."

This viewpoint should be challenged vigorously now!

This is what Bush is clinging to now.  

Having become what the majority of U.S. citizens rate as the worst U.S. president, Bush might not care to reveal anything regarding his 8 years of reckless rule.

The very thought of accountability -- of the deaths in the Iraq War along with giving the U.S. the biggest debt of some $10 trillion in U.S. history and our current economic collapse makes Bush eager to run to his Crawford, Texas ranch to cut weeds, something he may be good at.