Accountability: U.S. Must Prosecute Cheney And Co.

To even consider "moving on" without prosecuting these individuals is out of the question. If Nixon had gone to prison for Watergate and Reagan had become his cellmate for selling arms to Iran, we wouldn’t be going through what we’re going through right now. If we simply turned the page on this matter, we become accessories to their war crimes.

[Beneath The Radar]

Eight years of Republican “leadership” has left America both economically devastated, and globally humiliated.

Yet, far from apologizing for the damage that they’ve done to the stability and image of this great nation, instead, the people responsible for the damage have circled the wagon and gone into damage control mode.

They’re not trying to ameliorate the damage that they’ve done to the nation; they are attempting to rewrite history in order to control the damage that they’ve done to themselves.

President Barack Obama is desperately trying to return America to its former position: economic stability at home; and, respect, admiration, and moral authority abroad.

The GOP leadership seems to be completely oblivious to the nation’s desperate and immediate need for a concerted effort in that regard. They’re like clueless children who find it impossible to see the big picture. Thus, at this point it has become abundantly clear that their primary concern is not with restoring America to a sound footing in the world, but rather, simply restoring themselves to power at any cost.

This situation points out the wisdom of always seeking to draw something of value from every adversity, and in this case, we should seek enlightenment. In spite of the fact that virtually everyone in the Bush Administration managed to avoid serving this nation in uniform—Bush went AWOL, and Cheney obtained five deferments— the GOP has somehow managed to pre-empt and wrap themselves in the glorious vestments of “patriotism.”

The current situation should teach us a valuable lesson in that regard–never go by what people say; always go by what they do. And what are they doing? While the American people are experiencing the kind of suffering that this country hasn’t seen since the Great Depression, and the United States has become the “Dick Cheney” of the world, the GOP’s one and only concern is how they can regain power.

Is that patriotism? I don’t think so.

There’s only one word to describe this current batch of Republican wing nuts–and you have to go outside the English language to find it–chutzpah. They’ve left this nation’s global standing at its lowest ebb ever, and they’ve also left us much less safe.

But in spite of that, Sean Hannity and FOX news have seen fit to trot out Dick Cheney to lecture President Obama on national governance and world affairs. What Makes these people think that anyone is interested in listening to anything this guy has to say?

The vice president of the Crips has a higher approval rating than Dick Cheney, so the Republicans can have but one motive–to create division and disseminate propaganda. Hannity’s time would have been better spent holding a séance, then conjuring up the spirit of John Wayne Gacy to give us a lecture on child rearing. It couldn’t have been any less productive, but at least there would have been an entertainment factor involved.

Then you have Carl Rove trying to imply that President Obama is turning America into a Banana Republic. When I first heard him say this, the word “stupid” immediately came to mind. Either Rove is stupid, or he thinks the American people are complete fools.

Now, think about it. Wasn’t Carl Rove a major part of the very Administration that: lied us into war and illegally invaded a sovereign state; sent our troops off to war without the proper equipment to keep themselves alive; then made them pay for their own meals while lying wounded in the hospital; then looted the nation’s treasury and resources; setup no-bid contracts to enrich their cronies; and, spied on their own citizens.

Today they are trying to convince America that torture and all of the things listed above are okay, so that Bush, Cheney–and their entire crowd– won’t be prosecuted for war crimes in addition to defrauding the American people. All this senseless waste of human life for personal gain.

If I’m not mistaken, I think Carl Rove was indeed a major part of all that. So, who looks, sounds, and behaves more like tinhorn dictators? Before Rove started pointing his finger at President Obama, he should have smelled it first.

As a direct result of the greed, poor judgment, and self-service of Bush, Cheney, Rove & co., instead of focusing our efforts on the Pakistan and Afghanistan border where Osama Bin Laden and the others who planned and executed the Nine-Eleven attack on America were in hiding, they went to Iraq and began to torture detainees. They were not protecting America; they were attempting to justify the lies they were telling the American people in order to steal Iraqi oil, enrich themselves, and loot our nation of the necessary resources to fund the New Deal programs that they couldn’t attack legislatively.

Now, as a direct result of that flawed judgment, we have the Taliban a mere 60 miles away from a nuclear-armed Pakistan. So I don’t know about the rest of America, but to me, Dick Cheney and Carl Rove’s claim of keeping us safe is sounding pretty ridiculous about now.

To even consider “moving on” without prosecuting these individuals is out of the question. If we simply turned the page on this matter, we become accessories to their war crimes. In addition, we cannot allow them to just walk away from placing the survival of this nation–and indeed, the world–in serious jeopardy.

And further, if we are fortunate enough to survive this unmitigated episode of irresponsibility, we need to send an unmistakably graphic message to the next group of budding demagogues, who they’ve undoubtedly planted throughout the government. If Nixon had gone to prison for Watergate and Reagan had become his cellmate for selling arms to Iran, we wouldn’t be going through what we’re going through right now.

And finally, we have a moral responsibility to the world. A nation cannot just turn the page after its leaders have committed war crimes and are responsible for the slaughter and displacement of a million people. That page won’t turn without the offending nation engaging in aggressive corrective action.

If it were any other nation, the United States would demand accountability, so we can demand nothing less of ourselves.

I know–they’re simply wing nut Republicans, but their behavior in office was much more than a meaningless prank.

Just because we put up with them, doesn’t mean that the world should have to. After all, we even carry a pooper scooper for our pets. Trying to walk away from the atrocities of the past eight years would be like defecating and then trying to walk away without cleaning up.

We’d have to walk wide-legged and very uncomfortably, throughout the rest of history.


Editor’s Note: Should Cheney and other senior officials that lied and led the U.S. into an illegal war and authorized torture be prosecuted? Send us your comments to [email protected] for publication

For more brilliant writing by Black Star News columnist Wattree http://wattree.blogspot.com

“Speaking Truth To Empower.”

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