Gordian Knot

There is no longer any doubt as to whether
the current administration has committed war crimes.
The only question that remains to be answered
is whether those who ordered the use of torture
will be held to account.
--Lt. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba,
on his investigation of Abu Ghriab abuses
_________________

Honorable man, General Taguba. He should be welcomed back into service post-haste by the Obama administration.

The new administration should hold torturers legally liable for their actions, but the prosecutorial model should be that of the Nuremberg Trials.

So far in the Phony War on Terror (PWOT ©) the only convictions for prisoner abuse have been at the lowest levels. Let those culpable not come from the NCO ranks, but from 4-Stars and above.

Eric Holder, Obama's pick for Attorney General, said several months ago, “Our government authorized the use of torture, approved of secret electronic surveillance against American citizens, secretly detained American citizens without due process of law, denied the writ of habeas corpus to hundreds of accused enemy combatants and authorized the use of procedures that violate both international law and the United States Constitution.We owe the American people a reckoning.”(Obama should prosecute Bush officials who designed torture policy)

However, the issue of torture, while very serious, is a sideshow to the most egregious offense, which is the illegal aggressive war initiated by President Bush. Preemptive invasions are wars of aggression, and therefore violate international law.

Unfortunately, there will be no trials for our current crop of criminals --neither the torturers nor the war makers -- for to do so would be political suicide for Obama, further fracturing the U.S. along partisan lines. If Obama is to effect a unification of the nation, trials will never happen, and if they do not happen, then Obama is guilty of being an accessory after the fact.

This is Obama's Gordian knot.