Ethics

More Ironic Statements on Torture

By Ed Brayton

Balko found this one:

"War crimes will be prosecuted, war criminals will be punished and it will be no defense to say, 'I was just following orders.'"

Who said it? George W. Bush. While announcing the invasion of Iraq in March, 2003. But I've no doubt that he would happily spare anyone for committing war crimes as long as they pressured an attorney whose job depended on them into providing a badly-reasoned legal justification for why it wasn't a war crime. If only Saddam Hussein had an Office of Legal Counsel to issue memos, Bush would have let the whole thing slide.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on April 29, 2009 (boomark / email).