From the Mailbag

Some Stuff From Pleiades

Pleiades has sent in a couple of interesting links.
No.1 is interesting, contrarian commentary from Uruknet, which is dare I say some kind of Pro-Saddam English language site in/about Iraq.

The ruling, by Appeals Court Chief Judge David Sentelle -- a long-time right-wing apparatchik -- must be seen to be believed. As Reuters reports:

Government employees who engage in questionable acts, such as abusing prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay facility or engaging in defamatory speech, cannot be held individually liable if they are carrying out official duties, the court said.

"The conduct, then, was in the defendants' scope of employment regardless of whether it was unlawful or contrary to the national security of the United States," Appeals Court Chief Judge David Sentelle wrote in the opinion.

WP's excellent analysis of the ruling and its implications should be read in full. But here is a taste, from his conclusion:

So let's recap, shall we? A Federal court has ruled that some of the highest officials in our government are not accountable for their acts of treason, mass murder, war crimes, and crimes against humanity -- not because they were following orders (for surely some of them, especially Karl Rove and Dick Cheney [photo], were giving the orders); not because they thought they were doing something righteous or Blessed by God; but simply because they held positions in the United States government -- regardless of the fact that these actions violated the most serious federal and international laws, regardless of the fact that they all knew their actions were deeply illegal, and regardless of the fact that they were never legitimately elected to those government positions in the first place -- or legitimately re-elected in the second place.

Furthermore, the court decrees, this immunity applies not only to the principals in this case but to all manner of American government officials committing all manner of horrific crimes -- including torturing prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.

Did you get that? Do you finally get it now?

And these are the people who preach to the world about democracy and freedom and rule of law.

Well, maybe. The guy I work for likes to say "Sucks to be you!" when ever he gets his way over other people. I think it's a descendant of the Thucydides notion that the strong do as they do and the weak can only deal with the strong in the capacities which they can.

No.2 is the actual source quoted in the article. I think the point is this:

It is interesting -- and horrifying! -- to note that this decision ventures well beyond the "just following orders" defense which was used by the Nazi war criminals and found wanting at Nuremberg.

It even goes beyond the "divine right of government officials" long desired by the Dominionists of the allegedly "Christian" so-called "Right". At least under the proposed "Constitution Restoration Act", government officials would have to claim they believed they were carrying out the will of God in order to be absolved of their crimes.

Now, at best I'm not big on War Crimes Tribunals - On bad days I think they are a bad joke. I mean, hanging Saddam or Milosevic or Karadzic is just so little compensation for the vast pain and suffering they visited upon ordinary people. trying them makes us feel better as it serves to make it look like justice is being served but it's always just a political front - And then to kill them in a kangaroo-court-sanctioned execution is pathetically inadequate. They can only pay with one death for millions. Calling it justice is an insult to the idea of justice. But that's just me.

So Thucydides is right. The strong do as they do. The rest of the world just has to deal with it in the ways that they can.