Admitting to the crimes is the first step to being pardoned.

Michael Ratner - link at sig - says this is a plea for a pardon, but it's not. It's just softening up public attitudes so that when the pardons come through, people know why.

Cheney doesn't need to plead with anybody - he's still running the show.

Great stuff as always. And I hope you are finding time for some serious downtime.

But I still don't understand how you can post with righteous outrage about things like this without even mentioning the PNAC's stipulated desire for a Pearl Harbour-like event that would solidify public opinion behind their stated US global empire agenda.

The PNAC neocons seized power in late 2000. The event occured in late 2001. Public opinion solidified. The pre-packaged agenda was pursued immediately (in fact, it was already being rolled out). Coincidence?

Your comment about "stunted adolescence" is spot-on. But isn't it also childish to play by the unwritten rules of a game where certain facts have become unmentionable, simply because they immediately evoke wild claims about "911ers" and "Conspiracy Theories"?

I am talking about the PNAC and the ignored warnings about 911 and the Mossad agents dancing on NYC rooftops and the Bin Ladens being flown out of the USA and all the rest of it... These are real events, on the record. Why must they always be ignored for the sake of Teh Credibility?

All the Broder-esque intellectuals seeking a clever centrist position should consider that Glennzilla is not, in fact, as extreme as many of us on this issue. Glenn has a legal mindset and is prepared to give people the benefit of the doubt, whatever the curcumstantial evidence.

Personally, I've seen the circumstantial evidence build up higher than the old World Trade Centers over the past 8 years, and I am not prepared to give any of these criminals the benefit of the doubt any more. Lock 'em up, throw the book at them, and let them try to argue their own way out of this hole.

Merry Christmas one and all... What would Jesus do?

There is only one place for people like Saddam Hussein, Charles Taylor, Robert Mugabe, and (oh, yes) Dick Cheney & Co to be tried, and that is the International Criminal Court.

I sincerely hope that President Obama hears this message, and commits the USA to supporting the ICC.

And assuming that he wont, perhaps NOW is a good time to start a pressure group?

NB: It's just past midnight on New Year's Eve here in Australia, and I'm here commenting on Glenn Greenwald's blog. Yes, it's (still) that bad from an international perspective. Please, please, wake up, America!

Glenn said:

"All wars -- even the most just and necessary -- entail civilian deaths, so incidents like this don't, by themselves, prove the war is wrong."

In fact, no war is ever "just". No war is ever "necessary". Yes, all wars "entail civilian deaths", which itself proves that all war is wrong.

You are an admirably clear thinker, Glenn. I don't want to sidetrack you into a discussion about absolute pacifism. But I do believe it is the only logical and coherent stance one can take when it comes to these matters.

Once you start arguing that SOME wars are just and necessary, then it simply becomes a matter of who makes that value judgement. And who writes the history books later.

Just proving that everybody makes mistakes.