If I called the police and said that my neighbor was intending to attack me, and that this neighbor has all sorts of guns hidden in his house, and I had everyone in my family swear that all of this was true, that would be a terrible thing to do, especially if it weren’t true. What if I constantly called him on the telephone and insulted him and hired people to throw rocks at his house every once in a while, would make me some kind of whack job? If I wrote stories about that neighbor and had others write stories about him and printed them in the media so that everyone could see what kind of a man he was (or what kind of man I wanted them to think he was), would that be right?
Now suppose that I convinced the police that this man was such a menace that they actually sent in a SWAT Team and invaded his home because of the mistaken belief in the story that I told them about the weapons cache he had, and in the process of raiding his house the man thought it was a home invasion and actually fired at the SWAT Team, killed a cop, and in the confusion the man’s wife and one of his children were shot and killed. When the scene finally settled down and the police realized that I had made the entire thing up so that I could get rid of my neighbor and buy his business, what do you suppose would happen to me?
Do you believe I should be charged with murder because of the stories that I told that culminated in one cop dead and two people gunned down by the police? I believe that the District Attorney would convene a Grand Jury and charge me with murder and a laundry list of felonies and I would probably spend the rest of my days in prison. If I ever had the good fortune to get out of prison, I am sure that my neighbor would have also charged me in a Civil Court and would have taken everything that I owned, so I would most likely return to nothing. If this were to happen, most people would have no pity for me and just about everyone would have said that I got what I deserved.
Let’s take the same set of circumstances and attribute them to George W. Bush and Saddam Hussein. The armed forces invaded Iraq and found no Weapons of Mass Destruction and Iraqi soldiers and civilians died, and are still dying along with our own soldiers for something that was started on a lie. Why hasn’t Bush been charged with a crime? The facts are coming to light now are that Bush and Cheney both knew that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction. What’s the difference between what they did, and what would have happened with me if I did that to my neighbor? You tell me. Is he exempt from the standards set by the law because he is The President of the United States? Can he lie to the American people with impunity and force a war with another country predicated on lies? Is this legal?
I have heard that we should impeach the President and the Vice President and let the World Court (or The International Court of Justice) at the The Hague, charge him under international law. I don’t believe that we should let the rest of the world do our dirty laundry. I believe that this is an American problem that should be decided by Americans. I also believe that if he broke the law, that both he and the rest of his regime that prosecuted the case for war with lies and facts that could not be substantiated should be prosecuted without delay. This nation cannot afford to have an Executive Branch that uses American foreign policy to gain an advantage monetarily for themselves and their business partners. I believe that the reason that Bush wanted to remove Saddam was to stop him from flooding the market with oil and to institute these “Oil Laws” that the United States is pressuring Iraq to accept that gives Big Oil 75% of the oil reserves in Iraq. This amounts to trillions of dollars, as most geologists now feel that Iraq has the largest oil reserves on the planet. This isn’t heavy crude such as the oil from Venezuela; this is light sweet crude that brings top dollar for its purity. This is oil that can be used for plastics, fertilizers, fuel, and also to keep the people that control it, rich for decades.
Today he commuted “Scooter” Libby’s sentence. Since “Scooter” worked with this “regime” is that legal? If Bush wouldn’t have commuted Libby’s sentence I would have been surprised. Of course he’s going to take care of his own. This investigation as far as I know is still ongoing in the case of who exactly gave up Valerie Plame’s name. Once Libby was in jail, there is no telling what kind of evidence he would have given up to be free again. I’m sure Bush took this into consideration.
Meanwhile, we still have a question that is unanswered here. If someone knowingly makes a false report to the authorities, shouldn’t that person be charged with a crime? I think so and there are others that think so. I’ll keep you posted; this isn’t close to being over.
