Mr Bush, Meet Mr Milosevic. He's your New Cellmate!

After exposure to images and stories about unlawful detainment and outright torture at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, we have now learned of other secret CIA prisons throughout the world. We have learned about the use of weaponized white phosphorus in the assault on Fallujah, and heard about images of civilian women and children whose skin was literally melted off. While American audiences are getting bits and pieces of information about these stories in our own media, it is reasonable to think that the international press are covering them too, and without incentive to downplay the seriousness and horror of these events. In short, the World is watching, and they can’t like what they see!


In a press conference shortly after the disturbing events of Abu Ghraib were made public, the President said that he was “ saddened and disappointed that what the world saw happening in Iraq does not reflect the true heart and conscience of the American people.” So how can the American people show the world their “true heart and conscience?”

At this point, the United States is no longer trying to maintain a position of moral authority in the world, but is fighting an uphill battle just to regain moral credibility! It will not be enough for the American people to allow George W. Bush to finish out an ineffective second term with low approval ratings. It may not be enough for the country to impeach Bush and remove him from office. In light of the horrendous actions that the World is seeing committed by our country, to regain any semblance of moral standing, it may eventually be necessary to voluntarily turn George W. Bush over the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

Although the United States has not shown unlimited support for the ICC, in 1999 it required Yugoslavia to arrest and hand over Slobodan Milosevic for trial for war crimes committed in Kosovo as a condition for U.S. Government support. As long as we and the World expect such action from countries whose leaders commit atrocities in the name of their citizenry, we must be willing to do the same with our own leaders. Otherwise, we risk confirming to the World that the true heart and conscience of the American people is exactly what they have seen under George W. Bush!