In an essay, "Why Bush and Cheney Should Get A Fair Trial," Nightprowlkitty at Docudharma poses the question, Why should they get a fair trial? Much of the piece presents variations on the theme:One reason is because so many have not gotten a fair trial, both here in the USA and abroad.
Underlying that theme is a message that the legitimacy of the United States system of Justice depends on it.
If we do not hold those in power accountable for their crimes, then who will ever believe the average American has any chance of a fair trial? Why should our faith in our justice system continue?
This is a very powerful rationale for letting blind justice take its natural course, rather than having the natural flow dammed by the establishment. But there is another powerful reason.
Impunity of the elite from justice is a certain path to social breakdown. We know the crimes committed by George Bush and others. In the words of chief American prosecutor at Nuremberg, Robert H. Jackson:
To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.
The crimes are not in question. The only question is whether society will allow Bush to get away with these crimes. If it does, the rule-of-law will become illegitimate in the eyes of many more people and the thread of civil order will unravel further.
Put another way, do the elites want orderly Justice or disorderly Justice? I saw the dot-com bubble burst coming, I saw the Bush wars coming, I saw the housing bubble-burst coming, I see inflation coming and I see social breakdown coming if Bush and his associates are not prosecuted.
Psssst... Do Something
- Contact the Broadcast Media
- Contact the Newspapers
- Contact the US Senate
- Contact the House of Representatives
2 comments:
"Justice" is what is meted out on the street. "The Rule Of Law" is that farce encountered when one enters a courtroom.
NO American politician will ever go to international (or Domestic) trial, including Bush. To do so, would unleash the floodgates for civil action to address the illegal doings of decades. CYA is still job one in American Politics
Can't argue with your point FWY, BUT (note how big that But is), BUT, if the pitch forks and torches come out, some American politicians might throw some other American politicians under the bus.
So, where did I put that pitch fork anyway?
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