http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/061506Z.shtml
House Republican War Crimes
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Thursday 15 June 2006
There is going to be a debate today on the floor of the House of
Representatives regarding Iraq. Is it within the realm of possibility to
categorize a debate on the floor of the House as a war crime? Is that too
much of a stretch? Leveling a war crime accusation is deadly serious
business after all, and not to be bandied about like some meager political
football. Given what is expected to take place today in Washington,
unfortunately, such a categorization is worth considering.
What is a war crime anyway? Article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention
defines war crimes as, "Willful killing, torture or inhuman treatment,
including willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or
health, unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement of a
protected person, compelling a protected person to serve in the forces of a
hostile power, or willfully depriving a protected person of the rights of
fair and regular trial, taking of hostages and extensive destruction and
appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried
out unlawfully and wantonly."
How many of these definitions have been met by the United States during
our ill-fated adventure in Iraq and during this so-called "War on Terror" as
a whole?
Willful killing? Check: see Fallujah, Haditha, etc.
Torture or inhuman treatment, including willfully causing great
suffering or serious injury to body or health? Check: see Abu Ghraib.
Unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement of a protected
person? Check: see Guantanamo and the secret "rendition" of prisoners for
interrogation to nations that practice torture as a matter of daily
business.
Willfully depriving a protected person of the rights of fair and regular
trial? Check: see Guantanamo again.
Extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by
military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly? Check: see much
of Iraq, specifically its former petroleum industry.
But all this happened during the invasion and occupation, and many of
these despicable activities have been papered over by dubious legal findings
generated by Attorney General Gonzales. How does a debate on the floor of
the House of Representatives rise to the level of a war crime?
Simple. Awareness that war crimes are being committed, combined with a
lack of action to stop those war crimes by an individual or entity holding a
position of leadership, is as bad as the crime itself.
Major Darwyn O. Banks of the US Air Force, whose April 2001 research
paper on information warfare titled, "Mitnick Meets Milosevic," notes the
following: "While there are no claims Milosevic personally committed any
such crimes, he is culpable under the principles of command responsibility
and direct responsibility. The former alleges Milosevic's foreknowledge of
such crimes without acting either to prevent the commission thereof or to
punish the perpetrators. The latter form of responsibility implies that he
authorized, planned, instigated and/or ordered the unlawful acts. These
indictments against the former Yugoslav president, then, highlight the
primary categories of the law of armed conflict."
Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution endowed Congress
with the power to make war. To be sure, that power has been slowly but
surely usurped by a series of presidents, but the basic principle remains.
At a minimum, if the legislative branch is going to surrender its
constitutional responsibilities regarding our formidable war powers to the
executive branch, they should at least attempt to exert a degree of
oversight once the bullets start to fly.
This Republican congress has not done this to any degree whatsoever.
They rolled the whole process down the hill to 1600 Pennsylvania, provided
political and legal cover for the White House every time something went
wrong, wrapped themselves in as many American flags as they could find, and
stapled themselves to this president who, by his own words, goes to work
every day with war on his mind. Thus it has been for the last three years
and 87 days.
Today, however, there is going to be a debate on Iraq in the House of
Representatives. Republican Majority Leader John Boehner (OH) has stated
publicly that he hopes this debate will "match the serious, dignified tone
of deliberation that preceded the Gulf war, in 1991." One can hope, I
suppose, but it bears mentioning that the last time the House debated Iraq
in the open, a decorated Marine Corps veteran named John Murtha got called a
coward for suggesting that it was time to consider a withdrawal from the
seemingly endless conflict.
And then there's the confidential strategy memo, generated by Boehner's
office and distributed to every House Republican, outlining where the
majority leader would like to see the majority guide the debate. The
serious, dignified tone he requested in public is hardly evident in the game
plan he has provided to his fellow House Republicans.
Boiled down, Rep. Boehner would like his fellow Republicans to bring up
September 11 as many times as possible - this short memo mentions 9/11 no
less than seven times - while denouncing House Democrats as weak and
vacillating. "Democrats," reads one portion of the memo, "are prone to waver
endlessly about the use of force to protect American ideals. During this
debate, we need to clarify just how wrong the Democrats' weak approach is
and just how dangerous their implementation would be to both the short-term
and long-term national security interests of the United States."
Nowhere in this confidential strategy memo does Boehner suggest that the
House attempt to regain control of the process that has led us to this
dreary and deadly situation. Nowhere does he note that waving the bloody
shirt of 9/11, especially in situations that have nothing to do with that
day, is an irresponsible perversion of the facts on record. Nowhere does he
note that every credible human being on the planet has flatly declared that
Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. Nowhere does he mention the weapons of
mass destruction that were not there.
Nowhere does he note that the invasion and occupation has made this
country, and this world, far less safe. Nowhere does he mention the 2,497
American soldiers who have died in Iraq. To be sure and certain, nowhere
does he mention the fact that crafting any solution to the Iraq mess is
going to require the bipartisan effort of the entire Congress.
Instead, Rep. Boehner would like the House debate to stomp across the
same worn and discredited ground that has been endlessly covered throughout
this whole affair. He would like the debate to be umbilically attached to
9/11, and he would likewise appreciate it if Democrats are attacked and
denounced at every opportunity. It is, after all, an election year.
It is possible that the House debate today will break new ground, that
sober minds will be able to elbow the snarling partisans into the periphery,
that hard facts and real solutions will be presented, that a crack of dawn
sunlight may be found in this long, terrible night, and that a step towards
ending all the death and destruction and sorrow and woe may actually be
taken.
Don't count on it, though. Thanks to the Republican majority and its
leader, this debate will be yet another dog-and-pony show designed to do
little more than frighten and divide the populace. In the process, this
debate will ensure that the war goes on, and will further ensure that George
W. Bush and his people are insulated from accountability, culpability and
the basic need to chart a new course.
The Republicans in the House know what is happening, and know how bad
things are. By framing this important debate in such simplistic, venal
terms, they are absolutely guaranteeing more of the same. And that, friends,
is a war crime, and you can watch it happen today on television.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
William Rivers Pitt is a New York Times and internationally bestselling
author of two books: War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know
and The Greatest Sedition Is Silence.
***
US Tour of Duty and Neighborhood UU Church are hosting
Scott Ritter and Steven Hill
Friday, 16 June 2006, at 7:00 p.m.
WAGING PEACE IN A TIME OF WAR
Neighborhood Unitarian Universalist Church
301 N Orange Grove Blvd, Pasadena 91103
Suggested Donation: $15
No one turned away for lack of funds.
Scott Ritter
Former UN Weapons Inspector
"The anti-war movement, first and foremost, needs to
develop a laser-like focus on being nothing more or less than anti-war...It
needs to start thinking like a warrior would, in full recognition that we as
a nation are engaged in a life-or-death struggle of competing ideologies
with those who promote war as an American value and virtue."
Steven Hill
Director of the Political Reform Program
Steven Hill, former senior analyst and co-founder of the
Center for Voting and Democracy FairVote, is director of the Political
Reform Program at the New America Foundation, which seeks to identify and
develop the best opportunities for political and electoral reform. He is
author of the recently published Ten Steps to Repair American Democracy
(PoliPoint Press, May 2006).
For more information, call 626.683.9004
Sincerely,
Sharon Kyle & Dick Price
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web: http://www.northeastdemocrats.org
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