How To Take Bush To a Court Of War?

Today I was discussing whether the Iraqi journalist, Muntazer al-Zaidi, was correct in throwing a shoe at Bush. As these last days of the Bush era press on, the world needs to be discussing whether the U.S. president should be tried by an international court for committing war crimes, rather than putting on pajamas and enjoying his retirement tour.

We should talk about the one hundred thousand civilians killed in Iraq, a country invaded and destroyed by a war Bush created, and based on a lie - a lie with hidden economic interests. Hundreds of those killed were children. The number of civilians maimed and the number of families destroyed by the war is immense. A country was devastated and will take decades to recover.

And is there a court for international crimes of war? What can be done to bring Bush to this this court? Who must we use? Can ordinary citizens be mobilized? Are there promoters of the international tribunal to receive and assess complaints against genocide? Anyway, what can you do as an ordinary citizen, one who does not accept that this carnage should be left unpunished? How do you bring Bush to the international court, such as the armed forces of Rwanda - which has just been sentenced to life imprisonment? Or like the genocide of the former Yugoslavia? Why them and not Bush? Why does the press not speak about it? Why not show the path of stones to process the executioner? Why not raise this discussion?


For Thanksgiving, to show his "magnanimity", Bush saved two turkeys from death, instead of the traditional one turkey. The fact was highlighted throughout the press with pictures of the smiley president. But throughout the month of November the same international press ran pictures of horror in Iraq. The connection between the two events should have been obvious, but nothing.

It seems that there is a machine in the world to shape opinions. This machine determines that, having been brought to the presidency through election, Bush can not go to trial and be judged by the carnage he sponsored. And opinion formers end up believing and dispersing that.

What should he get: life imprisonment or a nice retirement on a Texas ranch?

**This text was originally written in Portuguese by Rogerio Marques adapted and modified to English by BakedPanda Team.

Dick Cheney War Crimes

Today Dick Cheney admitted to committing war crimes (water boarding - a form of torture)

According to US CODE: Title 18,2441. War Crimes, Dick Cheney should face life in prison:

Offense.— Whoever, whether inside or outside the United States, commits a war crime, in any of the circumstances described in subsection (b), shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for life or any term of years, or both, and if death results to the victim, shall also be subject to the penalty of death.

So I thought, "Well I will just sue Cheney." Makes sense to me, right? So I got online and looked for a way to sue Dick Cheney which led me to read about the International Criminal Court. I got exited when I read that about persecuting "individuals for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression."

Problem?

The U.S. does NOT belong to the International Court and the court only has jurisdiction within its member nations - which include the rest of North and South America, Oceania, Europe, and most of Africa. How is it that the U.S. is not on this list? This is the country that, within Dick Cheney's lifetime, hanged people for water boarding. What happened to our standing in the world, when did America loose its morals?