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Hold U.S. Leaders Accountable for War Crimes
War Criminals -
LEGAL AUTHORITY
By Sherwood Ross
Unless Americans hold their leaders accountable for their criminal conduct, even if it means the death penalty, future leaders will commit crimes as well, a prominent law school dean warns.
“Unless and until this starts being done, and I stress the need for the gallows when the crime warrants it, we will never be without major crooks, without causers of major disasters, in big business, in government, in economics and in war,” writes Lawrence Velvel, dean of the Massachusetts School of Law at Andover and an award-winning essayist.
“Unless and until we start sending the even worse criminal warmongers and torture mongers to the gallows, we will in the long run keep getting more of the same. We will recoil from the disaster only to find ourselves facing a similar economic or warmongering disaster five or ten or twenty years from now,” Velvel wrote.
As to the economic and business side of it, by now nobody needs persuading that one disaster can and does follow another, Velvel says. As for starting wars, “who, if he or she lived through Viet Nam, would have thunk it could happen again, yet (former President George W.) Bush and (former Vice President Dick) Cheney and their fellow mental dwarfs saw to it that it did,” he added.
Velvel noted that “It was the fear of being held to account in courts even though this had never happened before that led the Executive to commission exonerating legal memoranda from the John Yoos and their ilk in the Department of Justice and the Pentagon. For George Bush, Richard Cheney, Don Rumsfeld and Henry Kissinger to swing, or even for them to spend years in jail, would be a powerful lesson to future American leaders.”
He added, “It is not amiss to note that leaders of Germany and Japan from the end of World War II until today have never advocated the kinds of policies advocated by generations of their predecessors. There are several reasons for this, but one cannot discount the importance of the leaders’ knowledge that their predecessors swung in the 1940s.”
Velvel called for, “A culture of honesty, a culture of competence, a concern for the other guy, not just oneself—all of this is crucial to a decent society and can collectively be summed up within the individual by whether or not he or she has a decent internal code of honor.”
“But look as hard as you want, and you are not going to find that internal code in most people, at least not in people who are big deals in this society,” Velvel explains. “It was recently said of (former Secretary of State) Condoleezza Rice that her only core principle is success. What was said to be true of her—and I personally think worse of her than that—is an oft true principle of American life in general. There is no decent internal code of honor among the big shots, who care for success alone. The absence of such a code, and of the elements comprising it, in the big shots and many others is, I think, as often said here, the single most profound tragedy of our country, because it causes so many others.”
Velvel states: “Today, there is no accountability for our leaders, nor do their own families face death on the front lines as occurred during the Civil War (when several Cabinet officials’ sons or brothers faced battle) and World War II (when one of FDR’s sons participated in extraordinarily dangerous missions in the Pacific). Today there are, rather, only very different factors—factors that make it easy and safe for leaders to fight wars; there are half trillion dollar appropriations, huge standing military forces which the President orders into combat all around the world at the proverbial drop of a hat, a compliant congress that refuses to do its duty, and an incompetent, if not venal, mainstream media.
Writing of Obama, Velvel said that he “seems to be drinking the same Kool Aid that was drunk by, and destroyed the presidencies of, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and George W. Bush.” Velvel said that President Obama’s actions in Afghanistan “indicate he has learned nothing from the debacles in Indo China and Iraq. They are especially dumb for having been made by a guy who is quite smart….”
Velvel is cofounder and dean of the Massachusetts School of Law at Andover, a law school purposefully dedicated to providing a quality, affordable education for students from minority, immigrant, and low-income backgrounds who would otherwise not be able to afford a legal education and practice law. He is also founder of the American College of History and Legal Studies, scheduled to open in Salem, N.H., this August. #
(Sherwood Ross is a media consultant to the Massachusetts School of Law at Andover. Contact him at sherwoodross10@gmail.com)
Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=42012
Posted by Sherwood Ross on Jul 27 2010, With 0 Reads, Filed under AfPak, Iraq War, WarZone. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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I believe a significant majority of Americans would support criminal investigation of the Bush administration, and particularly the Office of Vice President and its neocon cabal that unquestionably lied us into war in Iraq, and that would include a majority of lifelong registered Republicans such as myself. Americans would equally support re-opening the investigation of 9/11 to determine if there was any prior knowledge on the part of Israel or our own government, or possible complicity in some dark recesses of our government. It is quite possible, therefore, that Senator Joe Lieberman introduced his cyberspace security bill, which would enable the president to shut down the Internet or censor its content, with such a reaction here at home in mind. Such power would effectively be in the hands of Rahm Emanuel, and hence given to Israel itself.
The extraordinary revelation in the Washington Post that there are about 845,000 individuals in and out of government working on top secret work should alert any thinking American to the likelihood that, given their uselessness in the conduct of our wars, they have been assembled for another reason altogether. That is, as Mark Skousen has suggested, to impose tyrannical surveillance and control over the American people. The Orwellian DHS, led by that brooding, malevolent apparatchik, Janet Napolitano, has reportedly been funding development of diabolical weapons of crowd control, such as lethal sound blasters and spraying crowds with psychotropic drugs, which are intended for use solely against American citizens.
Our Constitutional rights have already been abrogated by the Patriot Act, ratified in stone by its renewal, and the right of peaceable assembly will surely follow. Elena Kagan is on record as saying “dangerous” free speech is not covered by the First Amendment, and “dangerous” in her lexicon can only mean dangerous to the elites who have overthrown our democratic republican form of government by stealth. The administration has already set up 10 districts to effectively eliminate states as meaningful political entities when the planned-for cataclysm takes place, instituting a police state across the land.
Our leaders aren’t mad by any means, but they surely are bad people with evil intentions cynically dressing up their usurpation in empty hooray words like change, hope, democracy, peace, etc. Lyle Rossiter, a forensic psychiatrist wrote about the pathology of the leftist mind, which in regard to blind ideology applies to the neocon faux-right as well, but he should have taken his study further to expose the selection process for public office in our country that has guaranteed that only narcissistic sociopaths need apply. One man in particular who slipped by, who stands athwart the enemy within, is Ron Paul, and we’ve witnessed the outright scurrility of Fox’s attacks on him, proving that their brand of conservatism is merely window dressing for the elitist agenda. If Fox News cared about the American people one iota, you would think they would call for bringing our troops home. But as we all know, nobody shills for more war quite as shamelessly as Fox News, making them, in my view, as guilty of treason and high crimes as anyone in the Bush and Obama administrations.
Great comment!! So it seems we have those of us that are ‘awake’ to varying degrees and those that whore for the elites, are the elites or eat the government propaganda and swallow with ignorant pleasure. Which of the two groups is larger? That’s what I would like to know! I’m strictly keeping this to the American population.
If you want to know how the people in the Bush administration have been filling private pockets with public money, killing people around the world and exploiting our soldiers, I cannot recommend enough Noami Klein’s “The Shock Doctrine”. It is all in there from Chile to Iraq and Afghanistan. They knew exactly what they were doing.
Sounds good on paper but it ain’t gonna happen. There are too many and money will stop it short. It sure would be nice for a pack of them in court. Don’t hold your breath as you will be the one down the tubes to hell
Dear Dan,
I already told Mr. Ross that I would help personally in the pursuit of this campaign. Due to the number of CEOs, Judges, Justices of the Supreme Court, Congressmen, Senators, Governors, Agency heads and military brass (past and present) nominally or actively involved in the schemes of the Bushes, Clintons and, now, Obamas, I don’t think that justice can be had in the United States.
I would like to see all of those who have been deeply involved in the subversion of this country indicted and tried for crimes against humanity. They need to be systematically stripped of their lucre and subjected to a little of the pain visited upon others through their actions.
Setting aside labels like leftist/right wing etc., the fact is that these monsters intended to turn America and the rest of the world into their fiefdom under the rubric of a political organization. They have essentially destroyed the economy of this country. They have been aided and abetted in their pursuit by banksters and corrupt industrialists.
Whether it is better to join the war crimes cases already in the World Court or to introduce a new case on behalf of the American citizens who have been forced to pay for many things that they opposed is not mine to determine. If someone came up with a game plan that was reasonable, I would be more than willing to write letters to push this forward.
Something needs to happen soon. Look at the CBO report on the impact of US debt on creating a fiscal crisis. That report states that by the end of this year, our debt will amount to 62% of the country’s GDP. That is GDP, not government revenues. This country is being bankrupted persecuting wars that are not needed nor wanted by the citizenry. Innocent citizens all over the world are being killed to satisfy the ambitions of men and women who have never even served in the military nor sent their children to serve. The hell with this mess.
I agree with you about Ron Paul. He and Kucinich are the only voices of sanity in a cacophony of self-serving delusional screechings.
MK
“WE THE PEOPLE” AGREED !!!!!
1st— OBAMA AND HIS STAFFS —CABINETS INCLUDING OBAMA’S WIFE MICHELLE !
2nd — BILL CLINTON AND HIS STAFFS —- INCLUDING HILLARY CLINTON !
3 rd —- GEORGE BUSH JR —HIS STAFFS AND CABINETS
4th —– THEN THE REST SAMPLE LIKE HENRY KISSINGER – “BILDERBERGS LEADER IN AMERICA ! MORE NAMES TO COME !!. ETC. ETC. ETC………
Dear Robert,
Let’s not forget the industrialists and governors that have followed this cabal into hell. Finally, the banksters, particularly David Rockefeller and the Goldman Sachs gang, to name only two.
I wrote Sherwood and asked him HOW this could be done? What court would we file in? All we need is a serious game plan and some backing from the rank and file of the military. That would bring everybody else into line.
MK
“WE THE PEOPLE” AGREED WITH RON PAUL AND ONE OF NEW CANDIDATE CONGRESS MENTIONED THAT WE MUST CLEAN UP 3/4 RIGHT NOW CONGRESS IN CAPITOL HILL MUST LOSE THEIR JOBS AN DIDN’T FOLLOW AMERICAN’S LAWS , THEY MUST FACE THE TRAIL FOR FAILURE THEIR DUTIES TO PROTECT AMERICA COUNTRY AND PEOPLE AND OUR U.S. MILITARY NOW IN TWO WARS AFGHAN-STAIN AND IRAQ SUFFERED AND DEPRESSED AND CRYINGS , ETC.
A real 9/11 investigation is a must. This countries political forces , powerful elite and intelligence agencies have quite a track record that goes back to just after World War II when the OSS became the CIA. A whole list of State Crimes Against Democracy (SCAD’s)are found in the February Issue of the American Behavior Scientist Journal’s February 2010 Issue. We need to prosecute the powerful elite (bankers)owners of the Federal Reserve and change how our money system is operated so that it works for the general public. We need each state to have its own public banking system out of the control of the powerful elite private owners. We also need to eradicate the CIA, reform the FBI, reform all three branches of government that are corrupted by greed and change the way we elect our judges and politicians using paper ballots that can be verified and most importantly having many more choices than the left/right fiasco we have now. We also need to diversify our mainstream media so its not controlled by 6 powerful elite individuals like it is now. We need revolutionary change and it begins with all of us regular people taking a sincere interest in our countries politics (policies) and how we let large corporations dominate (control) these polices. We have to fix these problems to make sure we have the right people with high moral and truthful standards taking us in a peaceful and we hope prosperous direction so we can all have jobs that help us sustain our basic needs so that we live a life in the pursuit of happiness, helpfullness and peacefulness.
Amen! Here are some links that you need to pass around. Link: http://www.pakalertpress.com/2010/07/29/video-al-qaeda-does-not-exist/ Read the article on that website, it tells the entire truth about the situation.
Paul Bremmer III had his company offices in one of the Twin Towers. Why did he not turn up to work that morning?
Vincent Bugliosi wrote “The Prosecution of George W. Bush For Murder”. You can google this and view a video.
For sale, by The Institute for Historical Review at: http://www.ihrstore.com
As a Vietnam combat veteran, I experienced first hand the “what goes around comes around” phenomenon. It is real. It sounds very prosaic to state that the same is the work of God. However, in my opinion, it is. The current economic,political, and social tragedy in the USA and some other countries is proof of the same concomitant with the fact that our nation and other nations are becoming increasingly Orwellian, authoritarian, and Machiavellian. Our involvement in the illegal and aggressive wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have prompted God’s vengeance on the American people and the people of other nations, in my opinion. I believe that His vengeance will take a more terrible form in the future. It is imperative for the American people to take a more forceful stand against these wars in order to prevent Gods Vengeance on the USA, the American people, and the peoples of other nations. However, of course, it is important to support the returning veterans!
May Dean Velvel’s hopes come to pass. For the sake of nation… “Lord, hear our prayer…”
LCM
Another asshole pie in the sky. I would like to drop you assholes into Iraq or any other shithole that the American military is in and see how long you would last. You people live in a dream world, in reality, most people are hungry and unsafe and don’t have time to dream up shit like this post. The biggest problem with the United States at present is lawyers, hang about half of you mf’s and we would be in much better shape. The biggest plus that George W. Bush has is he is not a lawyer.
This is BS, those bastards killed over 3000 American’s, if I was president I would have nuked them till they glowed. As far as this “professor from baston” He is just a political hack ally of Obama
You may have missed an act but Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. Then going around nuking people is no way to win friends and influence people. And I ask you again: why wasn’t Paul Bremer in his Twin Tower offices (Marsh & McLennan) that morning?
Why wasn’t Paul Bremmer in his office, because he wanted front row seats to watch the Collapsing Twin Tower Show. In other words, why would a person make a plot and then involve themselves in the plot, knowing they would perish.
And they think they are soooooo smart. I can’t wait til the day when people start snapping, and freak out on these crooked people.
These people want us to be civil, well the hell with that.
What these people don’t realize is , that there are people out there who are brewing and about to explode, and when it does, I don’t wanna hear anything about home grown terrorisim. The way I look at it is, It was Due justice, from true American’s.
William – you twit, go educate yourself.
You Know , The only way to make these things stop, is to go to the heads of state, corperate CEO’s that are proven (beyond a shadow of doubt) and just straight out assassinate them. Really, thats the only solution. Remember people, these crooked people are not immune to death no matter how much wealth these crooks have.
All n ALL thing’s don’t have to be this way, they made a choice to make it this way!
I’m afraid that revolution and I mean bloody, is the only way to stop this. I would prefer to see the bastards voted out of office and then a soldiers revolt against their superiors and then headed towards Wall St. and D.C. with the armed republic backing them up. Of course, it would be to imprison them and seize their assets. How pie in the sky is that and I don’t even own a gun!
When a nation based upon law, not tyranny begins its slow descent by allowing its corporate, financial, political, government and military leaders to be ABOVE the law, then it should not come as any great surprise that the gradual unraveling of a republic and the emergence of an empire begins.
I’ve long time been a advocate for public whipping for criminals, our current “system” of molycodeling doesn’t work. As for these criminals misusing the trust of thier office, firing squad, treason is treason.