OBAMA SHOULD LET THE REPUBLIC SAVE ITSELF BY LETTING JUSTICE DEAL WITH THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION.
As Paul Krugman points out in an excellent and very important essay in the New York Times: "If we don’t have an inquest into what happened during the Bush years, this means that those who hold power are above the law and can abuse their power."["Forgive and Forget", New York Times, January 16, 2008].
I agree 100%.
After the Second World War, hundreds of thousands of French collaborators of the Nazis were put on trial, 120,000 were condemned, nearly 50,000 suffered "National Degradation" (loss of face and civil rights), and well in excess of 10,000 were executed (under diverse legal procedures).
That may sound excessive, but the USA has never been occupied by Nazis, and suffered the rule of extreme traitors. France was not alone in the severity of her reaction. Several European countries, some of which had made the death penalty unconstitutional for more than a century (e. g., the Netherlands), reintroduced it, and judged and executed their own traitors and war criminals. In France some of the most famous Frenchmen were judged, and condemned to death, including a former head of state and a past prime minister (Laval). The famous writer Brasillach was condemned to death. He wrote movingly to president De Gaulle to spare his life, denying he did anything really wrong, but for writing. He was executed. Decades later, photographs were found of him looking at freshly assassinated victims of the holocaust.
One or two European countries (that will stay nameless at this point) never prosecuted any Nazi collaborators. Why? Because they were themselves wholeheartedly collaborating with Hitler (giving him most of his steel, for example).
Morality? Culprits will lie and deny. At some point, the truth has to be established. Truth can only be established in the past, so it can be hoped for, in the future. The USA never prosecuted the many US citizens who helped the Nazis before, during, and after W.W.II. This had many deep consequences for the deep gangrene of the republic. As Paul Krugman points out, a habit of not establishing the truth was taken. Another consequence has been the systematic rewriting of history, but a rewriting many people do not believe around the planet (since it was not certified by justice). For example, it is often alleged, worldwide, that many of the American secret services took the habit of self financing through drug trafficking (South East Asia, Pakistan-Afghanistan, South America), an Iran-Contra of drugs. It is even alleged that they used famous Nazi monsters (such as Klaus Barbie in Bolivia) to set up the drug networks. Now, the easy reaction of many Americans, when hearing of such things, is to deny it all, and condemn anti-Americanism. But so doing, by not projecting the power of truth and justice, they actually feed the Anti-American propaganda (just as well, or better, than Osama bin Laden).
Western republics are states of laws. They are not states of siege, as Bush tried to make them. If there is never any threat to apply the law, there will be no law. The law is hard, but it is the law, as the Romans said. Far from being above the law, politicians, being more visible, should lead exemplary, extremely lawful lives.
In the French republic, in recent years, the head of the Constitutional Court was prosecuted and had to resign, and the latest president of the republic, Chirac, is being prosecuted (and had to answer judges' questions many times). The preceding Prime Minister, Villepin, famous for his critique of Bush in 2003, has been charged, and is being judged [Not for criticizing Bush, but for taking part in a nasty campaign of disinformation]. No doubt the present French president, Sarkozy, does not feel above the law. If the USA refuses to ever prosecute its worthies, it's not really a democracy. Democracy means people-power, not people-noodle.
It would be very sad if Obama did not let the law be respected inside the USA. That would be more of the same: Bush violated the law outside the USA, now it would be violated inside. Maybe the USA should change its Constitution, so that justice can be much more independent of politicians. This is the case in France.
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Patrice Ayme
A much deeper version of this essay is found in Patriceayme.wordpress.com: "JUSTICE AS TRUTH FIRST, AND FAIRNESS, SECOND."
— Patrice Ayme, Hautes Alpes
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