archived: 09 - 15 May, 2004 Back Next
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Junkie Editor Michael Carmichael is “on assignment” this week at a meeting of the International Political Consultants in Turkey. Carmichael will return to Junkies Speak next week with all the latest news and views of the pros from around the world. Junkie substitutes today.
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JUNKIE
(“Draft Johnny to Iraq, Johnny Cochrane”)
Where to start and end the discussion of American torture in Iraq is a dilemma. So many perspectives demand discussion. Junkie chooses just one perspective today.
Today’s TPJ is replete with evidence that Bush’s neoconservatives knew about the AMERICAN torture chambers in Iraq for months. Most damning, the military’s own report was not even read by Rumsfled, the civilian head of the military, and Bush, the Commander In Chief. Bush, attempting to protect himself from public ridicule, admitted that he was not ware of the horror until the story broke in the press.
The salient question is really quite simple. Would the torture in Iraq ended if it had not become public? Bush’s record suggests the answer is NO.
In the aftermath of 9-11 and the continuing war in Iraq, Bush’s administration has, at every stage, waged a legal war that “detainees” and “terrorists” and “combatants” have NO legal rights in American courts. It matters not to Bush if the alleged “evil doers” are American citizens or not. Simply recall, that the base at Guantanamo, Cuba was built there because Bush reasons that if the foreigners are not held on American soil, there is no access to American courts. Which defines the precise point!
Bush contends that there is NO legal process for detainees; Guantanamo, Afghanistan and Iraq. If there is no legal process, there is no rule of law. The lack of the rule of law, enforceable even as to the United States, permitted American’s torture chambers in Iraq and Bush is directly accountable.
Being above the law, American forces in Iraq got the message – anything goes; and everything did. No fear of legal restraints in conducting their work humanely resulted in the abandonment of humanity.
What we have lost in Iraq, perhaps more important than America’s moral authority in the world, is the belief that no man, including Bush, is above the law. Every justification Bush advanced for the war in Iraq, save one, dissipated in the light of civic debate around the world. The LAST justification for the war was than an “evil doer” dictator had been deposed and his torture chambers closed. Today, Bush’s last reason for invading Iraq has turned on America in cruel and shocking irony.
Even as Bush and his administration is apologizing to anyone who will listen, Bush subtlety changes the justification for war one more time. This article by Dan Froomkin of the Washington Post is insightful:
Much has been made of the fact that Bush is still using a line from his stump speech about how the torture chambers in Iraq are closed. But here's something no one seems to have noticed: He has made a change. Now he's saying specifying whose torture chambers. Up until lately, the line generally went "Because we acted, torture chambers are closed." That was up until early Tuesday afternoon. See, for instance, his remarks in the Ohio towns of Lebanon or Maumes.
But since Tuesday night -- or by the time he got to Cincinnati -- he's been more specific. The exact words now: "Because our coalition acted, Saddam's torture chambers are closed." And he's used that precise phrasing two more times since then, at a Sterling Heights, Mich., rally later Tuesday night, and at the Republican National Committee Gala in Washington last night, which raised a record $38.5 million for the Republican National Committee.
Ask yourself one simple question. If Johnny Cochrane represented the prisoners in Iraq, with access to any meaningful legal process, would the torture have occurred? Never!
Lawyers in America take and oath and dedicate their lives to the proposition that everyone may obtain justice – no one is above the law. Lawyers are fighting Bush’s “I am above the law” arguments before the United States Supreme Court today. The decision hangs in the balance.
If American’s want to end the horrors of Bush’s excesses in Iraq, a simply solution is to draft Johnny Cochrane, and a host of attorneys, and send them to Iraq. For where they go, the hope of justice will follow.
Last Update: 03/23/2006