If George W. Bush is not a war criminal – a proud, unabashed one at that, as evidenced by his bragging in this video about ordering torture of detainees – then I don’t know who is. Just to refresh everyone’s memory, by ordering that people be tortured, George W. Bush violated the following:
*The 8th Amendment of the Constitution, which prohibits “cruel and unusual punishments.”
*U.S. Code Title 18: “‘torture’ means an act committed by a person acting under the color of law specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering (other than pain or suffering incidental to lawful sanctions) upon another person within his custody or physical control”
*A number of treaties/conventions to which the United States is a party, including “the American Convention on Human Rights (signed 1977) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (signed 1977; ratified 1992).”
*Also, “Torture in all forms is banned by the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), which the United States participated in drafting.”
*”International law defines torture during an armed conflict as a war crime. It also mandates that any person involved in ordering, allowing and even insuffuciently preventing and prosecuting war crimes is criminally liable under the command responsibility doctrine.”
*The U.N. Convention on Torture, to which the U.S. is a party. “Torture” is defined under this convention as “the intentional infliction or threatened infliction of severe physical pain or suffering.”
*The U.S. Army Field Manuals on intelligence collection and counterinsurgency, both of which “reiterated that ‘no person in the custody or under the control of DOD, regardless of nationality or physical location, shall be subject to torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, in accordance with and as defined in U.S. law.'” The list of techniques specifically includes “waterboarding.”
Now, George W. Bush has explicitly admitted to ordering torture, as defined under numerous laws and conventions to which the United States is a party. So, why is he not being prosecuted for this?
