The State of Bush vs the State of Law

by Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey

Where did the Bush regime go wrong?

Somewhere along the line, once, George W. Bush and his clique of elitist super-rich entrepreneurs who dictate White House policy, must have had political objectives, must have believed that they could do good for America and for the world. What has ensued is a systematic abuse of power, a systematic disregard for international law and a systematic outrage of human rights. Where did the Bush regime get it wrong?

The recent decision to deny the prsoners of Guantanamo access to lawyers while other inmates belonging to friendly nations such as the UK (partner in war crimes) are released, shows how far down the line the Bush regime has sunk in terms of total and wholesale disrespect for the fundamental principles of international law.

Where is the principle that a person is innocent until proven guilty? Where is the principle that a prisoner has the right to humane treatment? Where is the principle that a prisoner must be notified of his crimes and given a fair chance to defend himself?

The Bush regime has respected none of these in Guantanamo, which instead has been turned into a concentration camp, complete with the use of torture, which now appears as a mainstay in the conduction of policy. The Bush regime has disrespected every fibre of decency, every thread of the spirit of righteousness which forms the spine of American society, which is based on the principles of respect for freedom, respect for democracy and respect for fairness.

George W. Bush likes to speak about Freedom and Democracy but then again his words are merely sounds, phrases to use and abuse at will if the right and convenient political climate can be created by using them, even if they are said without an iota of substance and without a grain of truth. Indeed, the Bush regime has turned Washington into the Queen of Liars, the Bush regime has turned the United States of America into a state with pariah status in the international community, the Bush regime has for the first time created a government and governance which has zero credibility in the hearts and minds of world public opinion, which was alienated with the shock and awe tactics adopted by a regime of war criminals and mass murderers.

The Bush regime has flouted the UN Charter, the Geneva Convention, diplomatic norms in use for decades and has left a legacy of the murder of thousands of civilians, the destruction of civilian infrastructures, the handing out of rebuilding contracts without tender, the arbitrary execution and imprisonment of innocent people, systematic rape, the murder of children, deployment of WMD in civilian areas and widespread use of torture.

It is difficult to think of a worse case of wholesale disrespect for the law, for legal principles, for the basic norms which dictate the line between what is right and what is wrong. The Bush regime has not only violated world public opinion, it has violated the diplomatic community and even worse, has violated the fundamental bond of trust held by the people of
the United States of America in their government.

As it happened, at best, this regime, suspect from the beginning, turned out to be no more than a bunch of incompetent, arrogant, rich kids with no more respect for the fellow human citizen than it had an understanding of what it
was doing. At worst, this regime is manipulated by the gang headed by Dick Cheney, the scar-mouthed, hard-faced, thin-lipped, short-snouted influence behind the throne, the face of corporate America, the face of the oil and arms industries behind US foreign policy.

The result is what we see, the same result as would be expected from putting an obese and spoilt six-year-old in charge of a hamburger restaurant with unlimited access to burgers and fries.

Time for regime change. George W. Bush stiffed the world.

http://english.pravda.ru/mailbox/22/101/397/13748_Bush.html