America's war criminals pass the buck to underlings (Japan Times)

[struggle4progress]

<snip> Today, abuses of conventions of international and U.S. law are the direct outcome of orders promulgated in the very highest echelons of power in Washington. And yet, the commanders continue to pass responsibility for these outright illegalities onto the weakest links at the bottom of the chain of command.

The reason for this lies in the culture of irresponsibility created and nurtured by the Bush administration. According to this, the buck does not stop on the president's desk, where it should, but is rather passed on down and dropped in the lap of the weak, the vulnerable and the unwitting. Never has the U.S. ever experienced, in such a comprehensive manner, a ruling clique whose measure of governing is "the rulers can do no wrong" and whose password is "shirk and destroy."

The Eichmanns, Calleys and Englands of this world must surely take responsibility for their individual actions. "Only following orders" is not an excuse that is acceptable in the courtroom.

But when an entire government, such as the present one in Washington, is permeated by a culture of avoidance of truth and the shifting of blame -- be it for abuses in a prison or for crude finger-pointing in the aftermath of natural disasters -- and when leaders of a country blatantly flaunt international treaties, universally honored conventions and fair legal practice, we are obliged to ask, "What has happened to justice?" <snip>

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fl20051009rp.htm

[Wilms]

1. I dig this line...

"the culture of irresponsibility created and nurtured by the Bush administration"

[valerief]

2. Culture of Irresponsibility

As good as Culture of Corruption, although the latter has the alliterative edge.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

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[struggle4progress]

4. Did the occupying authority prosecute those crimes after the war? eom

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

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[struggle4progress]

6. The failure to prosecute more Pacific theater war crimes was an error ..

.. in my view.

I don't know what ignorance or geopolitical thinking went into the decision not to hold Japan more fully accountable for the atrocities of that era -- but I would bet that at the time these decisions were made the broad consensus was simply that alienating the Japanese public would limit use of Japan as a base against China and the USSR ...

[klyon]

7. at the time it was thought that the two bombs dropped were enough

the ethical questions of dropping "the bomb" is still debated today

KL