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and cleaning bedpans in veterans' hospitals if my favorite punishment for them. That's a far sweeter restitution. And it gives them a chance to save their souls. Electrocuted or lethally injected (or, in the case of Saddam, hanged) dead criminals teach people nothing--except "might makes right" and killing solves your problems (it never does). People need examples of REAL problem-solving and redemptive punishment. What better example than the former President of the United States (with electronic anklets on, of course, and constant surveillance) serving the people he so gravely and unjustly put in harm's way.
And then there are the hospitals in Iraq...and the kids, oh my...although we probably could not guarantee the safety of our community service examples in Iraq. Maybe bring the wounded here, all of them.
I would also like us get some of our money back--and that would be a wonderful task to give to our national and worldwide spy/black ops network. Purge the most guilty of the "renderers" and torturers, and let the rest of them use their (lawful) skills--tracking the Bush Cartel/Al Qaeda money trail, and other diabolical mysteries, and picking up billions of missing U.S. taxpayer dollars in various banks and other hiding places along the way. They could also build cases against the war profiteer corporations, so we can bust them up, pull their corporate charters and seize their assets for the common good. (Notice that Halliburton moved its headquarters to the UAE--they are surely worried about just this sort of thing.)
And, of course, there are the personal fortunes of our convicted community service providers. They have promoted seizing the assets of pot growers, even before they are convicted of anything. If a pot grower uses his/her house for growing the herb, or garage, or car, or bank account, the Feds seize their property, and can do so on mere accusation, not conviction. So-o-o-o, we, the people, can also presume that Bush's Texas ranch, or Cheney's big "golden parachute" from Halliburton, and all the other assets of all the war criminals in this regime, have been used in the planning and commission of really big crimes--mass murder, torture, mind-boggling theft--and seize them all. That should amount to a tidy sum of restitution all by itself. Maybe pay off a tenth of the national debt.
Bugliosi has the right idea, as to the absolute necessity of investigation, trial and conviction of the members of this Junta--both for justice's sake, and so that it NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN. But he is not creative enough as to punishment. The death penalty is just a repeat of Bushite fascism. It is cruel, vengeful and ultimately pointless--and bad for society. But it would NOT be pointless to put them to work in a vets' hospital, as an example to all (but especially to future presidents), and it would be quite useful to retrieve some of their ill-gotten gains for good purposes (like transporting a million Iraqi patients to U.S. hospitals).
This is the thing about Bushites. They are so dull, stupid and murderous. Let's show them what the Enlightenment was all about, and what progressive government, following upon the Enlightenment, should become. It spares lives. It saves lives. It redeems the apparently irredeemable. It promotes the best in people, not the worst.
Unfortunately, I do believe that our Democrats made a bargain with this extremely dangerous Junta--no impeachment if they will exit peacefully. That's my best guess about impeachment being put "off the table." (Maybe Iran was involved, too--no nuking of Iran.) Neither Obama, nor anyone elected by Diebold & co., will want to--or even could--break that bargain. We may see some investigations. We already have. But we will never see prosecution and conviction of the main perps. For one thing, too many top Democrats were collusive in the Junta's war crimes. And for another, the Bushites have blackmail material and other weapons over most of them. And for a third, the bargain itself--if that's what happened--is not a bad one, if it was the price of preventing an all-out nazi state. We may never know, but one thing is quite clear: our political establishment is not going to pursue them. So, if they are to be pursued, it will have to be a citizen tribunal, with no power to punish, or the Hague (and the Bushites will always have countries they can take their billions to, for safe harbor). We may see some lesser perps go down; we will never see Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld & co. in shackles, serving wounded veterans. Alas.
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