The Confession

From Donald H.'s testimony:

RUMSFELD: Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, in recent days there has been a good deal of discussion about who bears responsibility for the terrible activities that took place at Abu Ghraib. These events occurred on my watch. As secretary of defense, I am accountable for them and I take full responsibility.

In the real world (especially the one promulgated by the Republican Party), taking "full responsibility" for a crime means accepting punishment. The Taguba report explicitly references the Geneva Conventions in outlining the crimes committed in the U.S.-run "prison" system in Iraq.

Donald H. Rumsfeld has accepted "full responsibility" for these crimes -- war crimes, that is. Crimes for which responsible parties have in the past been hanged.

This blog is opposed to Capital Punishment. But here we have, by his own admission, a man responsible for the commission of war crimes. Somehow, the debate over whether Rumsfeld should resign, as opposed to being packed off to gaol, seems a little inappropriate.

When somebody admits to having committed a horrifying and brutal crime, it isn't exactly standard operating procedure to say, "Well, thank you for your honesty. Have a nice day."

Okay, well, it kind of is standard operating procedure for white collar criminals, or progeny of powerful people, or Rush Limbaugh. But this is a new era, dammit! We believe in morals, now. We believe in family values, now. We're tough on crime, now. We don't coddle criminals, now. We left all that shit behind when we ran the liberals out of office.

Uh, right?

Posted by Eddie Tews at May 9, 2004 03:28 PM