We’re still fighting in Afghanistan after all these years and our militarists are itching to get involved in the religious Syrian civil war. After all, the House just voted a $638 billion defense appropriation and nobody gets punished for starting wars anyway. Darth Vader tours cable news defending the Bush Administration’s war in Iraq and probably gets millions in cash and free publicity. The Decider writes his memoirs and paints while we the people, the victims of his excesses, pay for it in a tanked economy, lost civil liberties, and in thousands of dead and crippled soldiers. Nobody goes to jail. Why rob a Seven Eleven when with the proper training and backing you can pillage whole countries and get away with it?
The current headliner is government spying and nobody seems to remember the Patriot Act passed under George W. Bush. Americans seem to be incapable of comprehending the bigger picture, but there was a time when things like torture, rendition (kidnapping), and, especially, the waging aggressive wars were frowned upon. Nazi perpetrators found out the hard way at the Palace of Justice in Nuremberg 1945-1946. I cite: Nuremberg Diary by G.M. Gilbert.
· Joachim von Ribbentrop, German Foreign Minister, “aggressive plans against Czechoslovakia" Death by Hanging
· Constantin von Neurath, early Foreign Minister, knowing of “War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity” as a “chief German official” 15 Years Imprisonment
· Walther Funk, last Minister of Economics, contributing to aggressive war, Life Imprisonment
· Ernst Kaltenbrunner, Chief of Security, “mistreatment and murder of prisoners of war” Death by Hanging
· Erich Raeder, early Commander of German Navy, “aggressive war” Life Imprisonment
· Herman Goering, Reichsmarchall and Luftwaffe Chief, helping launch aggressive wars
Death by Hanging
George W. Bush and Herman Goering had something in common besides being ex-pilots with drug problems. Goering knew “. . . people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of participation and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.” Was this revelation to Bush the product of historical osmosis, accident, or the poisonous intrigues of Dick Chaney? Americans will never know, but what they do know is that one major difference is the Decider was never held accountable for the same offenses for which we prosecuted Nazi war criminals at Nuremberg.
