Bush's true legacy: War Crimes

Scott Ritsema
CIVICS NEWS.com
January 21, 2009



In the final weeks of Bush's presidency, he and his advisors set about to try to paint Bush in a positive light, attempting to write the history books ahead of time. Their goal was to invent out of whole cloth a "legacy" that would sustain Bush's reputation for decades to come. The people aren't buying it, of course, because as dumb as the American population is, nobody is dumb enough to think that Bush was a great president. In fact, only 22 percent of the country "approve" of the job he did, let alone do they admire his presidency. Bush is the least popular president in the history of approval ratings.

So, what is Bush's true legacy? Rachel Maddow and Constitutional Law Professor Jonathan Turley discussed the reality of the matter, and how the Bush administration will be perceived over-seas for years to come:

"Do you think that Obama and his team realized how hot an issue this would become and would stay?" Maddow asked Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley.

"I don't think so," Turley replied. "I don't think the people in that building thought it," he added, pointing to the Capitol. "I mean, that building is where principles go to die. And they haven't, because there's been this groundswell of people saying, 'Look, you might be able to get away with an electronic surveillance program and say that's just a crime we're not going to allow to be prosecuted, but these are war crimes., these are a special category.'"

"I think that the new Barack Obama, the President Obama, is going to find it very hard to go round the world and to say that we're now again the nation of rules of law," Turley suggested, "if the first act he commits as president is to talk away from a confirmed war crime."

"Are we literally looking at a possibility," Maddow asked, "where administration officials from this [previous] administration cannot travel abroad to the other 145 countries that have signed the torture treaty because they might get arrested?"

"Most certainly," Turley replied. "The status of George Bush is not that different from Augusto Pinochet. They've both been accused of running a torture program. And outside this country, there's not this ambiguity about what to do with a war crime. ... Most people abroad are going to view you not as former President George Bush, they're going to view you as a current war criminal."

So that's Bush's legacy. Torture and preventive war, both of which are war crimes. Don't expect the Obama administration to represent any change in this regard. Obama's administration is filled with neo-cons and war hawks, and there is no talk at all of going after the criminals from the Bush administration.

UPDATE 1/28: Turly has now called Obama an "accessory" to Bush's war crimes.