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There was zero — functionally zero — accountability for anyone: 1. Bush Administration (and subsequent cowards) 2. Project for the New American Century and re

There was zero — functionally zero — accountability for anyone: 1. Bush Administration (and subsequent cowards) 2. Project for the New American Century and related organizations 3. cheerleaders and thoughtleaders in the media 4. executors of the orders and plans 5. and finally the American people for being so hungry for bloodlust (remember those "Liberate Iraq - Support our Troops" yard signs and bumper stickers?) … and folks wonder why there is a crisis in trust and epistemology. Awfully enough, a lot of these people are being rehabilitated (politically) because the subsequent ones are so bad that the old are cast in a more positive light. But let's not forget the flagrant impunity and lies, and the stench of recrimination and smear campaign against those who called out against the jingoism rationally (e.g., Valerie Plame Affair with Iraq)! I'll never forgive nor forget these folks' bad decisions. Bankrupted our country and my generation's future (and that of the subsequent ones). The opportunity cost of these bad decisions is incalculable.

lukifer 5y ago
I would add to the list Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama, who took "off the table" impeachment in 2006, and prosecution in 2009, respectively. A lesser crime, to be clear, but they are morally culpable nonetheless. On the one hand, I can understand the hesitancy to set a precedent of prosecuting the political opposition; while I think the evidence is clear that Iraq was a war crime, and not a well-intentioned "mistake", it's not hard to imagine counter-factuals in which genuine policy mistakes are spun the other direction. Nonetheless, it should give us pause that our Constitutional mechanisms for holding power accountable for flagrant abuse don't seem to have any teeth in practice; not from a lack of legal mechanisms, but from the factionalism of the two-party system, and that leaders are incentivized not to spend scarce "political will" that would distract from their own agendas, if not come to bite them as well when power changes hands.

lukifer 5y ago

I would add to the list Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama, who took "off the table" impeachment in 2006, and prosecution in 2009, respectively. A lesser crime, to be clear, but they are morally culpable nonetheless. On the one hand, I can understand the hesitancy to set a precedent of prosecuting the political opposition; while I think the evidence is clear that Iraq was a war crime, and not a well-intentioned "mistake", it's not hard to imagine counter-factuals in which genuine policy mistakes are spun the other direction. Nonetheless, it should give us pause that our Constitutional mechanisms for holding power accountable for flagrant abuse don't seem to have any teeth in practice; not from a lack of legal mechanisms, but from the factionalism of the two-party system, and that leaders are incentivized not to spend scarce "political will" that would distract from their own agendas, if not come to bite them as well when power changes hands.