I want President Obama soon after
taking office to go on television and announce the formation of a special group
of outstanding jurists and attorneys to make a recommendation whether or not the
U.S. Justice Department should bring
criminal charges against George W. Bush. Based on earlier analyses, including work by the American Bar
Association, I have no doubt they will recommend indictment.
If moral honesty and courage have
any meaning, then the nation must take seriously the concept that no president
can ever be allowed to be above the law.
How can President Obama not strongly support this? Surely no president may be allowed to
disrespect and dishonor the U.S. Constitution. George W. Bush broke his oath of
office. His behavior was
treasonous. Instead of defending
the Constitution he disgraced it.
Instead of protecting constitutional rights, including privacy, he
sullied them. He asserted his right
to ignore or not enforce laws so he could break them. Respect for the office of the presidency
must never be allowed to trump truth and justice.
Millions and millions of
Americans and people worldwide know that George W. Bush made 9/11 the trigger
for initiating an illegal war in Iraq that has killed and maimed so
many thousands of people. What
Vincent Bugliosi, author of “The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder"
called “the most serious crime ever committed in American history.” I say convict Bush of myriad counts of
criminally negligent homicide related to both Iraq and the
Katrina disaster and put him in prison.
A former president in prison would not disgrace the presidency. It would restore honor to the office and
the Constitution.
Surely millions more people now
understand that George W. Bush bears responsibility for creating the conditions
that encouraged greed-driven capitalism to rape and murder the middle class and
push us into the current global economic meltdown. By removing government oversight and
regulation he committed the greatest acts of fraud in the history of
mankind. After he made American
democracy delusional he made prosperity delusional.
We the people are paying the
price for George W. Bush’s criminal acts and so must he. When George W. Bush is sent to prison
everyone will see that American democracy has earned the respect of the
world. Everyone will better
understand that evil comes in many forms and that even an elected president of
the United States of
America can and must be recognized as a
perpetrator of horrendous criminal acts.
Please President-elect Obama,
make it so. Be the principled
person we want you to be. Make the
USA the nation it is supposed to
be. Have the courage to do what
Congress refused to do when it did not impeach George W. Bush. Change history by showing the world that
American justice applies as equally to the president as it does to anyone
else. Do not let George W. Bush
escape the justice and prison sentence he deserves. Do not let respect for the presidency
trump respect for justice. If we do
not bring George W. Bush to justice that probably only you can make happen, then
surely we do not restore respect for the office that you worked so hard to
achieve.
To ensure that no future
president behaves like George W. Bush we must punish him. Not merely through the words of
historians, but through the physical punishment that he has inflicted on so many
millions of people. In previous
eras citizens would have demanded “off with his head.” Now we must demand “lock him up.” How poetic for a pro-torture
ex-president. As summed up at www.imprisonbush.com: “Bush must be made accountable to
the law, to serve as a lesson to all those who would attempt to destroy the
American system of laws and liberty for the sake of their own power.” This is a test for both President Obama
and American democracy.
If there is any kind of God in
the universe, then George W. Bush must go to prison. When he does, then and only then should
God bless America.
[Formerly a full professor at the
University of Wisconsin, Madison and a senior official at the
Congressional Office of Technology Assessment and the National Governors
Association, Joel S. Hirschhorn is the author of nonfiction books, including
Prosperity Without Pollution, Sprawl Kills and Delusional
Democracy.]