Will the New President Prosecute Bush?

Obama Must Deal with Old Administration

Amidst the euphoria of the Obama win is the fact that he has some very sober decisions to make, and his choice of Rahm Emanuel as Chief of Staff does not auger well. Why choose someone who has served in Israel’s brutal IDF and who is rabidly anti-Palestinian? Is this ‘Change’? Also disturbing is talk of retaining Secretary of Defense Robert Gates with all his Iran-Contra baggage. Or Madeleine Albright, who stated that the undisputed deaths of 500,000 Iraqi children during the sanctions following Gulf War I were ‘worth it’. Or possibly appointing Paul Volker to head Treasury. Change? This sounds like Business As Usual.

But his biggest challenge will be in how he chooses to deal with the crimes of the previous Administration. Crimes such as kidnapping, illegal imprisonment, torture, assassination, illegal invasions, the use of prohibited weapons such as white phosphorous, the wrongful deaths of up to 1.2 million Iraqi and Afghan civilians, illegal domestic spying, etc.

Will an Obama Administration seek to Prosecute Bush?

Or will the new administration indulge in the familiar American proclivity to retreat into self-delusional denial? And please note that we’re not just talking about President Bush here, but a huge number of enablers from the top right down to the actual torturer or sniper or pilot dropping white phosphorous on living human beings, including children. It’s Ashcroft and Rice and Rumsfeld and all their minions. It’s John Yoo and a bunch of law-breaking lawyers. It’s generals and colonels and functionaries and aides. America sees fit to put Osama’s chauffeur on trial, so why not those who drove America along such a long low road?

It seems to me that given the scope of the illegal acts and indeed crimes against humanity the latter course would be a great mistake. So much malfeasance on the part of the Bush Administration has rendered America ill of spirit and heartsick.  At the very least a Truth & Reconciliation process along the lines of what South Africa or Chile (and other nations) did is essential. Criminal charges would be a better reminder to all Americans that the saying ‘No one is above the law’ is not just empty rhetoric, like some campaign slogans.

There has been and there will be more talk that a new Administration must avoid ‘politicizing bad decisions’. This is a huge cop-out. Either America is a nation of laws, or it is not.

For all the goodwill Mr. Obama now enjoys, it’s possible that if he tries to ignore the crimes of the last eight years, he will reap a whirlwind of outrage exacerbated by the befalling economic disaster, another Bush legacy. He risks becoming a one-term President, replaced in the ever more desperate hope of real change.

President Obama will either deal with the matter, or he will ask Americans and the world to pretend that it never happened while descending America one more level down the rabbit hole. It’s his choice, and for the world to judge.