Thanks to a DU member for this quote...

[Scuba]

"I remain thoroughly outraged at the idea that we are told to forget about war crimes... and that lying to get this country into war has no negative consequences and those guilty of doing so are free to profit from their crimes."

With all the problems that get attention in this nation, why are war crimes deemed acceptable?

[annabanana]

1. Yup. . This is a canker that continues to fester. . .

1 a (1) : an erosive or spreading sore

[DailyGrind51]

2. And Obama's failure to prosecute perpetrators was his first and greatest error.

If the President thought that not prosecuting the Bush administration would gain him Republican support for his reforms, he thought wrong!

[Just-plain-Kathy]

22. Amen.

[FailureToCommunicate]

26. Amen Amen

[mmonk]

3. Because that is how the people are directed.

The American people seem quite obedient.

[howmad1]

30. Unfortunately, we live in the dumbest country on the planet.;

Which explains the sheer, unadulterated stupidity of the American people.

[Loki]

4. It all relates back to "American Exceptionalism"

It's never a war crime if America does it. How's that heart thingy working for ya Dick?

[lib_wit_it]

28. Precisely! IOKIADI. /m

[ThomWV]

5. I'll kick this to the top and hope that others will keep it there.

[malaise]

6. K & R

Ignoring the inevitable will not make it go away.
Those who commit war crimes must be punished.

[russspeakeasy]

20. Unpunished? You are not limiting it to war crimes are you?

How about the everyday crooked politician who steals, lies, 
gets re=elected and steals some more?
That's like punishing serial murderers, but not rapists...

[Oceansaway]

7. K&R...n/t

[jotsy]

8. It depends on who's doing the deeming.

I think a cause for the depth of this particular kind of outrage is what sets it apart from the well of so many other sources of justifiable anger at the powers that be, whether Wall St, D.C. or the DOD. War brings death and destruction to other lands filled with people who suffer, and we as citizens are claimed as the reason...'our safety, our sovereignty, our interests'.

The media and the government use think tanks to quote from in drawing conclusions when informing a public or establishing policy. Many of these 'research' institutions, ironically are funded by the ultra affluent and I'd contend positions on any matter are in the name of preserving said affluence. They're very thorough about it, too. Spin doctors with spiffy titles will not only distribute flip chart responses to facilitate the 'same page' mentality in their messaging, they'll even send authoritative representatives to appear on many a cable news show in a spamming wave to act as an offensive tackles. Deflecting and drawing the conflict of criticism while the agenda ball advances. That's when the outrage can really try to seethe for me. The idea that these sadistic status-ticions see what they do and how to cover their hineys as a game just makes my blood want to boil. It is disregard that breeds contempt which in return, sew the seeds of hate. Their disregard for all but the simulation of wealth in a glutinous consumption that will not end until they are satisfied every sip of resource to be even potentially had rests under the big tent of their monetarily mighty thumb.

Okay, rant over, but I wanted to speak more to how many other avenues of crime there are going unpunished. Most recently, the US Attorney purging after the election cycle of '06. The major mortgage lenders engaged in a shell game that cost just about everybody just about everything and what little may be going on by way of accountability is being had from the bottom up, when it was the penthouse office types who set things in motion.

How can we trust authority when it wants to carry the dirty water of those who do the most wrong?

Thanks for the vent Scuba.
K and R

[Greyhound]

9. Because the guilty are all part of the same club and both parties. n/t

[metapunditedgy]

10. And why do we treat war so lightly? Like it's a bad thunderstorm or flu season. n/t

[kirby]

11. There is a lack of accountability just about everywhere...

The war is just one manifestation of it.

[Solly Mack]

12. In speeches, such things are not acceptable

On paper (for the most part), such things are not acceptable...but in reality, the lack of prosecutions clearly indicate that war crimes are not only acceptable, they are of such minor importance that such has been reduced to little more than a "policy difference". Not a crime...a policy difference.

[underpants]

13. The media is flooded with attacks on the messengers

they don't even want to talk about the information even after they said it meant nothing (before they got a chance to read it).

[sabrina 1]

14. That was in the thread on Obama's

statement about Charlie Rangel. You might like this thread Scuba http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8854925

War Criminals, who cares?

Rangel a war hero, defender of the poor and one of the most loved Liberal congressmen ever, elected with nearly 90% of the vote many times, gets caught doing a few things that by comparison to the crimes we are supposed to look the other on, are trivial, and our leadership, who never mention Republican crimes, pressure him to resign.

[Scuba]

17. Thanks for the link. Too bad about Charlie. The left needs to remain ...

...squeeky clean to maintain credibility, while the right commits crime after crime with impunity.

[sabrina 1]

25. That is true. But even when they are squeky clean, that won't stop

attacks from the right. Look at Van Jones eg. They will search for a comment, an opinion and blow it up out of all proportion until they destroy someone. Dems have bent over backwards to try to appease them. But it doesn't work, it only makes them bolder.

The only way to deal with them is to take a stand. To say 'fine, you made the rules, now WE are going to live by them. One of our guys gets caught doing something wrong? So what? What do you want to do about it?' And then publicly list all of their crooks and ask them when they are going to take care of their own back yard.

But continuing to cave to them, when the crimes they have gotten away with, with the help of Democrats, are so egregious, to keep throwing people they finger under the bus, that has to stop imo.

Of course I'm for starting investigations into those crimes, but the Democratic Leadership doesn't want to do that. Therefore, I see no reason to ask Charlie Rangel to retire. It is the height of hypocrisy imho.

[BrklynLiberal]

15. I feel that the Charlie Rangel noise is another repuke attempt to

get everyone to not look at the man behind the curtain.

ANYTHING they can do to distract and misdirect, they will do.

As has been mentioned many times already..Vitter? Ensign? War crimes by the entire Bush administration????????

[RainDog]

16. but the Senate passed an anti pot brownie bill!

I mean, where are your priorities?

[defendandprotect]

18. K&R --

[russspeakeasy]

19. Put them in prison where they belong...none of this

"except for my guy, he worked really hard". 
Bullshit...I want orange jumpsuits by the gross....Maybe if
Charlie had paid his taxes, like most of us did, he could
pick, another color........Nope, sorry Charlie, ORANGE is the
only color we have...and no big pockets either...

[txlibdem]

21. K&R n/t

[patrice]

23. Lying to get us into war is acceptable, because Americans love war; we love war, because

we are a death cult; we are a death cult, because we are not happy; we are not happy, because we are not Free; we are not Free, because we sold our birthright to Mammon.

[OrwellwasRight]

24. But it is all OK . . .

Didn't you know that 80 or 85 or 89% of Democrats approve of Obama's job performance? Why bring up unimportant things like wars, war crimes, and lying? Those things are so 2008.

:sarcasm:

[The Wizard]

27. The media would cover war crimes

if there was a stained blue dress in the story.
The media is nothing more than a propaganda operation. Fox News gives the corporate media cover by being blatant propagandists.

[xocet]

29. No worries....

Bush, Cheney et al have already been prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned by a (k)-dimensional court: though it is not apparent, they are currently being held in (k-1)-dimensional jail cells, and their (k)-dimensional bank accounts have been confiscated. So, it's all good.


:sarcasm:

[laughingliberal]

31. K & R nt

[valerief]

32. Why is war acceptable? nt

[HCE SuiGeneris]

33. War is synonymous with FREEDOM!

:puke:

[Chef Eric]

34. Obama is scared of the right-wing noise machine.

That is why we are told to forget.

[Scuba]

36. It seems that way, but why would he be? Their followers are fewer every day.

[Hubert Flottz]

35. K&R