War crimes trials

World War II was not a slam dunk win for the United States military. Hitler could have won and acquired nuclear weapons (he already had a ballistic missile). Those were extraordinary times and we did not waterboard anyone. Our interrogators "made friends" with German officers for information.

The former President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney have admitted to recommending “extraordinary rendition” measures which every country in the world has for centuries called torture.

If we let both of them use their excuse that extraordinary times made torture necessary; it makes the Constitution, the Geneva Convention and the U.S. Army Field Manual obsolete and as Cheney says “quaint”.

If we do not put Cheney and Bush on trial for war crimes it implicates the government of the United States and the people of the United States as being on record as supporting the torture of prisoners.

All the people of the world outside of the United States and every other foreign government understand that Bush and Cheney ordered the torture of prisoners. Only the American news media tries to obscure that fact.

Bush and Cheney are in the same league as Augusto Pinochet, certain Japanese World War II officers, the Kumar Rouge and Stalin.

If we do not prosecute Bush and Cheney for war crimes including torture. Two basic things will happen:

• Torture will be perceived as a United States policy.

• If they travel internationally Bush, Cheney and a number of high level Bush Administration officials will be subject to arrest and trial as war criminals in more than 100 countries.


From the U.S. Army Field Manual:

"The psychological techniques and principles in this manual should neither be confused with, nor construed to be synonymous with, unauthorized techniques such as brainwashing, physical or mental torture, or any other form of mental coercion to include drugs that may induce lasting and permanent mental alteration and damage." Under "Interrogator Capabilities and Limitations," it states that the Geneva Convention sets "definite limits on measures which can be taken to induce an EPW [Enemy Prisoner of War] to cooperate."