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?

The New Terrorist Organization: America

Many people believe in the war against terror. McCain and Obama both spoke about it during their campaigns. In my opinion we, the Americans, are terrorists. President Bush sent troops into Iraq and Afganistan to fight terror, but many innocent lives have been lost - this is what terrorism is.

"American should take its army out of the country," Khan said. "They are considered terrorists," said Muslim Khan, a grizzled Taliban spokesman who is one of the most wanted men in Pakistan, in a rare interview with CNN.

Then today I read something that summed up exactly how I have been feeling: Terrorist - what the big army calls the small army.

This may be anit-America, whatever that is, but it is a sad reality that we need to accept - we are not saviors, we are terrorists.

Obama Introduces New Technology to the White House

Barack Obama has already introduced a new White House position, chief technology officer, and is planning on introducing even more technology to the White House. It is already being seen on his transition web site - for the first time ever, a YouTube version of President-elect Obama's weekly radio address will be posted online. This is the first visible step in Obama's attempt to speak more directly to the electorate, and it will likely work - Obama drew in more than 110 million viewers for his 1,800 campaign-related videos.

Obama's media team wants to make it easier for the public to speak to him as well. A prototype of how this will work was released at www.Obamacto.org. This setup allows people to post questions online and vote for the questions they like. The questions with the most votes are likely to be addressed by Obama. So far, the leader late Friday, with more than 10,000 votes, was "ensure the Internet is widely accessible & network neutral," which Obama backs. Not so the second-ranked priority, repealing the USA PATRIOT Act.

"If 10,000 people say they want Obama to answer a question, he's probably going to respond," said Andrew Rasiej, the founder of the Personal Democracy Forum.

Hopefully this will allow Obama to get his message out to the public, without the mainstream media butchering what he says in order to fit their beliefs and agendas. I think it will also allow grassroots organizations to get their concerns heard, not only by the general population, but also by Obama himself.

Barack Obama has promised a more transparent government, and I think he is well on his way to keeping that promise.

Dispute over missile revives the Cold War

For decades, Soviets and Americans are faced in a complex board which threatened to trigger an unprecedented conflict. During the Cold War, capitalism and communism duels engaged in the ideological and armed field. With the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of the'80s, the Cold War left the scene. But the tension between Washington and Moscow never disappeared entirely.

Years later, the Cold War has changed its style and began to display a new facet in this globalized world. The world is not so polarized and technology adds a dose of drama. One scenario is the most alive Eastern Europe, where U.S. and Russia are facing in harsh dispute over missile. This undoubtedly will be one of the major challenges of the White House led by Barack Obama.

Fake Newspaper - New York Times Spoof

The liberal group the Yes Men handed out 1.2 million copies of a fake New York Times. The fake paper was dated 4 July 2009 and had the slogan, "all the news we hope to print." It included headlines such as: Universities to be free! Bike paths to be expanded! Thomas Friedman to resign, praise the Unitarian Jesus!

Although it is not funny like "The Onion" it did make people think, and more importantly, it made people hope for a better America and a better world.

The group also set up a web site mimicking the NY Times website. Take a look here.

Teenage Girl, Hannah Jones, Wins Right to Die

A terminally ill, 13 year old girl, has won the right to die after a hospital ended its bid to force her to have a heart operation.

The girl, Hannah Jones, has a hole in her heart due to medications she has been taking since the age of five when she had leukemia. "Hannah had been through enough already and to have the added stress of a possible court hearing or being forcibly taken into hospital is disgraceful," said her father Andrew.

Herefordshire Primary Care Trust dropped a High Court case after a child protection officer said Hannah was adamant she did not want the transplant surgery because the surgery itself has the potential to kill her. If the surgery did work, it would then be followed by constant medication.

The BBC's Jane Deith, who has followed Hannah's legal battle, said: "Hannah managed to convince this officer that this was a decision she had made on her own and she had thought about it over a long period of time, and eventually the court proceeding was dropped."

"She didn't take the decision lightly, and she had chosen that she wanted to live and die in dignity at home with her parents."