A New Nuremberg Tribunal for torturers

A new Nuremberg Tribunal?  The USA was part of the group of victors that self righteously set up tribunals at the end of World War II to try war crimes.  It was done publicly, contrary to the desires of everyone but the U.S., to show the world that the Allies were defenders of justice.  Even though the accused were subjects of dictatorships, "I was just following orders" was not accepted as an excuse for leniency.  Th lowliest soldier should be able to distinguish right from wrong.  Today, our war criminals are claiming the absurd excuse that the lawyers said it was okay.  It is no time for leniency today either.

       It's time for a new Tribunal that should be called the Baghdad Tribunal.  Benjamin Ferencz was a judge at the Nuremberg trials.  He would be the ideal chief judge of the Baghdad Tribunals.  All other judges should be from non-American, non-European nations.  Judge Ferencz wrote shortly after the invasion of Iraq in 2003 that it was a blatant act of aggression.  At the Nuremberg Tribunals, aggression was the supreme charge that could be levied against someone.

       America has trotted around the globe since WW II, with a holier-than-thou attitude, slaughtering people and committing crimes at least as hideous as any perpetrated by the Germans or Japanese.  Its behavior is more animal than human.  It is a nation of 1st century savages living in the 21st century.  The claim of "American exceptionalism" we now know means exceptionally cruel and evil.  In fact it always did.  A famous America once observed:

        For revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy,

        America remains without a rival. 

                     Frederick Douglas,  July 4, 1852

        More than one and one-half centuries later, the Bush Administration proved Frederick Douglas's observation is just as valid.

       Justice will not come from any American institution.  The U.S. does not have a justice system in reality because its citizens in general and leaders in particular can't grasp the justice concept.  CIA employee John Kiriakou revealed in 2007 that his organization was torturing people.  Why did members of Congress do nothing?  Why was Kiriakou sent to prison where he remains today?  American justice always has been just one form or another of a racist, class-based, jingoistic lynch mob.

       The USA refuses to become a signatory to the International Criminal Court for obvious reasons, so that option is out of the question.  Only a Nuremberg style tribunal with detention and capital authority is appropriate for this situation.