Truth Commission Only A Method To Avoid Responsibility and Obligation
The Obama administration cannot talk out of both sides of its mouth, on the one hand claiming that no one is above the law, yet blocking the necessary process of accountability and justice for the war crimes of the Bush administration.
Turley states: "There's no question torture occured here. There's no question it was a war crime. And so the only reason to have a Commission of this kind is to avoid doing what we're obligated to do under a treaty.
"But at the end of the day no one believes no one will be prosecuted for a known war crime. And when we do that, we will become accessories. Those crimes of President Bush will become our crimes. His shame will become our collective shame."
A criticism of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission was the following: "A 1998 study by South Africa's Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation & the Khulumani Support Group,which surveyed several hundred victims of human-rights abuse during the Apartheid era, found that most felt that the TRC had failed to achieve reconciliation between the black and white communities. Most believed that justice was a prerequisite for reconciliation rather than an alternative to it, and that the TRC had been weighted in favour of the perpetrators of abuse."
Joe Galloway's commentary at McClatchy News also calls for justice being served.
"President Barack Obama has signaled that he wants to remain above this fray and stay focused on the main task at hand — the melting economy he inherited six weeks ago — and that's well and good.
"But his new attorney general, Eric Holder, and our representatives on Capitol Hill must pursue the truth with great vigor and without fear or favor. Those who took this proud nation to the brink of dictatorship must answer for that, and if they violated our Constitution, our laws and international law, then they must be brought to justice.
"We cannot be the shining city on the hill if our gleaming buildings have dungeons and torture chambers in their basements. We cannot be a beacon of hope in a chaotic world if our hands are bloody and our ears still ring with the screams of helpless prisoners.
"It’s time to get to work cleaning up those dark corners in the White House and the Justice Department and all the other departments that had a hand in George W. Bush’s excellent adventure."
If our elected representatives don't live up to their oaths and responsibilities then perhaps other nations will take charge and members of the Bush regime will be sitting in a dock at the Hague for war crimes and the US will carry the shame of abrogating its responsibility to uphold treaties, the Constitution and rule of law throughout future history; a stain on this new administration.
Comments