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Obama Won't Prosecute Bush War Crimes

By Ed Brayton

President-Elect Barack Obama has sent a pretty clear signal that Bush administration officials are in the clear, saying on ABC's Meet the Press;

I don't believe that anybody is above the law. On the other hand I also have a belief that we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards.

Unfortunately, Obama doesn't get it. If prosecuting people for their crimes was "looking backward," there'd be no need to do it. Why did we prosecute poor Slobodan Miloscevic? He was out of power after all, so why didn't we just "look forward?"

Looking forward, I see the prospect of future presidents thinking they can commit any crimes they want without fearing retribution. That's a pretty good argument for prosecuting high-level Bush officials (I'm looking at you, Don R.), if not Bush himself.

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Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on January 13, 2009 (boomark / email).