All Americans should seriously examine what seems to be President Obama's lack of commitment to aggressively pursue prosecution of criminals of the Bush Administration, including George W. Bush. His two arguments seem to be that such activities by his new administration would be overly partisan and that the nation should be looking forward not backward. Missing from his thinking is recognition that in American democracy every president must give the highest priority to the pursuit of justice for all, including high level elected and appointed federal officials.
Respect for our Constitution and respect by Americans and others worldwide for our government must translate into this pursuit of justice. There is nothing partisan about this and looking backward is always an aspect of making the justice system work. Only by pursuing justice can we best prevent future illegal behavior by those that run our federal government.
As law school dean Lawrence Velvel said: "If Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, and others are not prosecuted, the future could be threatened by additional examples of Executive lawlessness by leaders who need fear no personal consequences for their actions, including more illegal wars such as Iraq ." Why would Obama not want such prosecution for war crimes?
I see no valid reasons for President Obama not doing what millions of Americans want: not revenge, but justice. He should give his new Attorney General a clear mandate to aggressively determine whether there is a basis for criminal prosecution of senior members of the Bush Administration, starting at the top with George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and cabinet level officials. If criminal behavior associated with what historians are already agreeing has been the worst presidency in the nation's history is not punished, then the Obama presidency starts with a wrongheaded understanding of what our Constitution and democracy demand.
What challenges bringing criminals to justice is the enormity of misdeeds by the Bush Administration. Nevertheless, when he was running for president, Obama said: "If crimes have been committed, they should be investigated." But he also said: "I would not want my first term consumed by what was perceived on the part of Republicans as a partisan witch hunt, because I think we've got too many problems we've got to solve." More recently, he said "Obviously we're going to be looking at past practices and I don't believe that anybody is above the law. My instinct is for us to focus on how do we make sure that moving forward we are doing the right thing. That doesn't mean that if somebody has blatantly broken the law, that they are above the law. But my orientation's going to be to move forward." Since when does the pursuit of justice prevent moving forward on policy fronts?
In some ways this is classic Obama, covering all bases while avoiding a clear-cut, unambiguous commitment. The role of the Justice Department is inherently focused on the past in order to make future behavior honest and trustworthy. If Obama is to succeed in returning America to the right track, then he must recognize that delivering justice may be more achievable than solving any of the huge economic problems facing the nation. He seems to underestimate the power and importance of punishing criminal behavior by Bush and his underlings. If he truly is free of the many corporate and other special interests that have corrupted both major political parties, then he should demonstrate his independence by pursuing justice loudly and passionately. Doing this would not drain resources from the Obama Administration or divert it from addressing the many urgent problems it faces.
A search on Google for "Bush crimes" revealed over 500,000 hits, which clearly shows the enormity of the justice-seeking challenge. The large number of websites devoted to the criminal behavior of the Bush regime includes, for example, bushcrimes.net. There have also been first-rate articles making the case for either impeachment or prosecution of George W. Bush, including one in 2003 by Walter Williams " Bush's High Crimes Against the Nation" that concluded with: "interpreting Bush's pattern of deception on his most important policy proposals as a high crime against the nation is a necessary step in rescuing American democracy." Bush did not defend and protect our Constitution, he flagrantly and repeatedly violated it and committed war crimes on an international scale, and his misdeeds demand punishment. For Obama to ignore conscious law breaking would be unconscionable.
It is also appropriate for President Obama to support a new investigation of 9/11, one that looks objectively and comprehensively at everything connected to the terrorists as well as our government. If there was a false flag, secret black operation by the Bush Administration, then that is something that must be revealed, if American democracy is to be taken seriously. Let us not forget that 9/11 was key to Bush waging an unjust, unnecessary war against Iraq .
Besides Obama, there have been many members of Congress that have downplayed criminal prosecutions of Bush and his associates. And many commentaries in the mainstream press have presented rationales for not pursuing criminal prosecutions. That leaves what surely is the majority of Americans that believe no one should be allowed to be above the law, especially any president of the nation. Protecting the rule of law is worth any political costs if American democracy is to be more than delusional. Finally, we all need to understand that political expediency as a reason to avoid prosecutions is also a violation of the rule of law that is based upon blind, nonpartisan justice.
Joel S. Hirschhorn has succeeded as: a full professor, University of Wisconsin, Madison; a senior staffer, U.S. Congress (Office of Technology Assessment); head of an environmental consulting company; Director of Environment, Energy and Natural Resources, National Governors Association; now an author and consultant. Two recent books are: Sprawl Kills - How Blandburbs Steal Your Time, Health and Money, and Delusional Democracy - Fixing the Republic Without Overthrowing the Government. He has published hundreds of articles in newspapers, magazines, journals and on many Internet magazine sites. He has given hundreds of talks at a wide range of conferences in the U.S. and other countries. He focuses on American culture, politics and government, and health issues.
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