Bush crew’s deplorable return: How their reemergence sends a deadly message

[madokie]

Enough with puff pieces about painting, and platforms for their self-defense. It only damns us to repeat the past

It’s been more than five years since Dick Cheney left the White House and nearly eight years since Donald Rumsfeld was booted from the Pentagon. With the obvious exception of George W. Bush himself, no two men were more responsible for the United States’ disastrous and criminal invasion of Iraq, as well as its embrace of a counter-terrorism model built on the twin barbarities of indefinite detention and systematic torture. In the years that have passed since their departure from public office, both men have released best-selling memoirs, made countless media appearances and no doubt added substantially to their already considerable wealth.

In fact, to get a real sense of just how little these men have had to pay for their sins, consider three recent examples.

One is a recent comment from Dick Cheney, delivered in public — not in private, not on background, not via unknown insiders with intimate knowledge of the former vice president’s thinking, but in public — about whether he still supports waterboarding (or torture, as most people besides Cheney tend to call it): “If I had to do it all over again,” Cheney said, “I would.”

The second is the new documentary, “The Unknown Known,” by Errol Morris and about Donald Rumsfeld. Estimations of the film’s quality vary, but all reviewers are unanimous in at least one regard: Rumsfeld, as he comes off in the film, truly has no regrets. Asked by Morris if invading Iraq for the second time, causing hundreds of thousands of innocent deaths and turning millions more into refugees, was worth it, Rumsfeld shrugs off the question and settles for a fittingly cold and glib answer: “Time will tell.”

http://www.salon.com/2014/04/05/bush_crews_deplorable_return_how_their_reemergence_sends_a_deadly_message/

[spanone]

1. k&r...

[Cyrano]

2. Fortunately, there's no statute of limitations on war crimes

I don't know if we'll ever see Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld brought to justice, but I certainly hope they will forever be considered war criminals in future history books. That might be small comfort, but it just may give any future president second thoughts regarding war and torture.

[malaise]

5. That's the good news

[Jesus Malverde]

12. How can anyone be considered a war criminal when the accusations only come from the fringe.

The mainstream media and all the rest still treat these monsters like reasonable people and not murderous extremists.

The narrative is all written. We were minding our own business when we were attacked, and the united states responded. The details and facts are lost to the wind.

[librechik]

25. as long as we allow it. n/t

[Jackpine Radical]

29. "I certainly hope they will forever be considered war criminals in future history books."

That all depends on who gets to write the history books.

Creationism is science. Yay for privatized education.

[Pholus]

3. By not rejecting them, we embraced their ideals....

and it means we will go on paying and paying.

Sadly, that's what *I* see when I "look forward." We missed a large opportunity to do the right thing.

[Frustratedlady]

4. Good article. Happy to see someone is brave enough to

bring out some of those points. How soon we forget (not).

I was also glad to see him attack the Kochs. We need much more of that, as half the country never heard of them. That just allows them the time to spread more of their hatred and implement more protection against prosecution for their bad environmental practices.

[Jesus Malverde]

6. It's interesting that the Administration has done little to put the nail in the coffin.

The men and women of the Bush administration are monsters who should be in jail.

That there have been no hearing, no trials, no punishment is testament that there is a symbiotic relationship at work.



President Obama giving presidential gravitas to "contender" Jeb Bush. The Bush family could have easily been disgraced from politics forever, the administration chose not to disgrace them.

[madokie]

7. In today's political climate

President Obama can't do anything about this. I know this, he knows this

If you think for a moment that the pukes would have gone along with any of this there would have been a lynching and it wouldn't have been one of the war criminals being lynched. You can bet on that

Take note of the numbers of racist asshole who've crawled out of the wood work just having a black man in the oval office and then tell me that things could be different.
I find it difficult to understand that you can't see this

Many of us thought we were past the times of having so many racist bigoted assholes until the election of '08. We have a long way to go yet

[Jesus Malverde]

10. All he had to do was let the truth trickle out.

The pukes would be caught like deer in headlights about to be run over by a carload of justice.

There are many committees or the promised transparency that could have put the republicans out of business forever.

[madokie]

14. I find that laughable

You are shitting me, aren't you?

30 some odd years after watergate and there's still no deer in headlights over that, what makes you think a black man in the whitehouse would allow anything of the sorts to happen now. Obama and Holder both would have been strung up. We're dealing with racist and bigoted asshole here and a hell of a lot of them

Best I can tell Obama didn't stop any trickling as it is anyway

[Jesus Malverde]

19. The most powerful man in the world, a victim, no way.

You give those that are outside the executive way too much power. President Obama is the leader of the most powerful nation the world has ever known. Just because it's not all milk and honey for americans doesn't change that.

[TheKentuckian]

34. More of this racist, damning by faint praise shit that a black person can only be a placeholder

and protector of the status quo, ever powerless before massah.

Your "defense" stinks to high heaven, it is pretty direct implication that Barack Obama is really just an overseer on the biggest plantation.

[totodeinhere]

22. Yes, President Obama has the power to do something about it.

He can direct A. G. Holder to indict Bush, Cheney, Runmmy and others. The Republicans would squeal about it of course but they would be powerless to do anything about it. They lack the votes to remove Obama from office through the impeachment process, so let them complain all they want. And after all President Obama is a lame duck. He doesn't need to worry about another election, only his legacy. And giving the criminals from the Bush Administration their just deserts would undoubtedly enhance his legacy in the eyes of historians.

[madokie]

24. Many of the thinking people see this for what it is

exactly as I stated too btw

[Shemp Howard]

30. He has the power, but he won't use it.

No doubt that Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld are war criminals. And I'm sure that Obama believes that too.

But I'm guessing that Obama doesn't want to set a precedence. Because then some future Republican president could more easily indict a previous Democratic office-holder. Then we'd end up like many third-world countries, where the new president immediately arrests the old president.

Personally, I think Obama should take the chance and at least start the discussion. The crimes of Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld are just too great.

[Android3.14]

28. So what you are saying is,

through your telepathic link with Pres. Obama, you have learned that, rather than being a lousy leader because he is a complicit hypocrite in the MIC, he is instead a lousy leader because he is powerless against racism.
Thanks for the enlightenment. Can't wait to cast my vote in November so that this time it will mean something.

[Baitball Blogger]

8. We should consider that

we all are getting a glimpse of what it's like to live in a dysfunctional family with an autocratic, narcissistic, abusive patriarch. If the United States had a face, that's what it would look like, sad to say.

[99Forever]

9. Someone COULD have drove a wooden stake...

... through these evil, murdering scumbags hearts.

Instead we got to...


... "look forward."



"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."-George Santayana

[Jesus Malverde]

11. ^^^^^^This^^^^^ times a million.

[historylovr]

13. Sadly, no one had the stomach for it.

Even now, no one does.

[99Forever]

16. I'm not so sure that is the reason.

I suspect something else. I'll leave it at that.

[historylovr]

35. Oh, I hear you!

Very true that there's another reason.

[Octafish]

17. President Clinton started the tradition with Poppy's crew in '93.

From "Lost History: Reagan-Bush Crime Syndicate" by Robert Parry:

For instance, Clinton prosecutors ignored credible evidence -- including a sworn affidavit from Reagan national security aide Howard Teicher -- so they could reject allegations that the Republicans had helped arm Iraq's Saddam Hussein in the 1980s. For his part, Hamilton hid documentary evidence that Reagan's 1980 campaign had colluded with Iranian terrorists to stymie President Carter's efforts to free 52 American hostages.

[99Forever]

18. Ford pardoned Nixon.

If we were to go back even further, well you get the drift.

[gratuitous]

23. Yep

We're always lectured by the law-and-order types that if we don't come down on law-breaking (meaning, blah people doing stuff in public), it will just continue and get worse. But when it comes to crimes against humanity at the highest reaches of our government, well, we'll just have to look forward. And the reward for that is these blood-gargling psychopaths come back into the public sphere with their credibility and respectability intact.

"But if Obama had prosecuted, Republicans would have said mean things about him!" Well, wahhh. Sitting in the big chair comes with responsibilities as well as rewards. Since we aren't going to police ourselves, some other folks might decide to do it for us. And they might not be very circumspect about niceties like evidence, rules of procedure, or even making sure they get the right people.

[Enthusiast]

32. They remain deserving of that wooden stake.

It seems like the appropriate punishment.

[Autumn]

15. Looking forward.

Looking forward means these fuckers have been rehabilitated in the public eye and we can look forward to more of their fucking input. They should be rotting in a cell

[L0oniX]

20. Cops kill over a car theft ...and these mass murderers walk free. The law and justice is a sad joke.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

21. What's sad is the comments section of linked article

It's amazing the dumbasses defending the Bush cabal. One says Saddam Hussein moved his WMD's into Syria that's why they were never found.

It takes a special kind of stupidity to believe this. If one was facing imminent defeat and had WMDs wouldn't they be inclined to use them?

[librechik]

26. rubes are told that specific lie repeatedly by their pastors in church

would they lie?

I've been trying to talk my Southern Baptist mom out of that Syria BS since 2004. Still rises to the surface.

[onecaliberal]

27. We can't investigate and prosecute war criminals...

When there is a blah president in the White House.

[NorthCarolina]

31. They're working with FOX to rehabilitate the Bush name in prep for a 2016 Jeb Candidacy. nt

[Shemp Howard]

33. No doubt about that.

Forget about progressives for a second. I can't imagine anyone in the center who would vote for a Bush. The name is just too tarnished.

And many on the right feel the same way. So why is Jeb being pushed? It's got to be some sort of billionaire's club power play. And I'll bet that Karl Rove is heavily involved.

No matter, really. If Jeb runs, he'll be crushed. Even big money wouldn't save him.

[Vincardog]

36. Every one of those bastids ahould be stripped of all financial assets abd publically flogged before

being sent to the strongest super max fed facility until their youngest victim is made WHOLE