Bush Library: Shrine for a War Criminal

The whitewashing of the most disastrous presidency in American history has begun.  Amnesia was on display at the opening ceremonise for the George W. Bush Presidential Library in Dallas, with the Washington press corps eager to engage in revisionist history:

Coverage of the opening of his presidential library Thursday was wall to wall on cable, and a feeling of affection for him was encouraged, or at least enabled, by the Washington press corps, which doesn't much like Mr. Obama because he's not all that likable, and remembers Mr. Bush with a kind of reluctant fondness because he was.

Only problem is, the disasters of the Bush era will be with us for many years to come: a war based on lies that ruined thousands of families and cost the nation $3 trillion (all borrowed from China), a great city abandoned in a terrible hurricane - still reeling eight years later, a wreck economy still limping back from the precipace.  No, these tragedies cannot be simply swept under the carpet.  Bush and his admirers in the press believe that over time his legacy will be reevaluated, that, like Harry Truman, he will come to be admired as a great president. 

But historians will remember Geortge W. Bush as the president who authorized torture, bringing shame and dishonor to the United States:

Die Museumsmacher in Dallas sind nicht zu beneiden. Bush ist nach wie vor sehr unpopulär; er baut darauf, dass er – ähnlich wie einst Harry Truman – im Verlauf der Zeit (und mit Nachlassen des kollektiven Gedächtnisses seiner Landsleute) immer besser beurteilt wird. Schwerer wiegt, dass gut eine Woche vor der Einweihung der Bibliothek eine mit Angehörigen beider Parteien besetzte Institution, das Constitution Project, explizit von «Folter» während der Bush-Ära gesprochen hat – und nicht die von Cheney und Rumsfeld benutzten verniedlichenden Umschreibungen wie «verstärkte Fragetechnik» anwandte. Das Constitution Project machte deutlich, wo die Verantwortung für die Folter lag: ganz oben, beim Präsidenten.

(The museum developers in Dallas have a difficutl job. Bush remains very unpopular. He's counting on the fact that - like Harry Truman - over time and as the collective memory of the American people fades, he will be judged better. But weighs more heavily is the fact that just a week before the dedication of the library an institution - the Constitution Project - consisting of members of both political parties, spoke explcitiy of "torture" during the Bush era, not using the euphamism "enhanced interrogation" favored by Cheney and Rumsfeld.  The Constitution Project made clear that the responsbility for the torture was at the highest level of the government - with the president.)

No presidential library or effusive newspaper columnist can ever erase the stain of torture from the history books.

Comments

[Zyme]

Could it be that you over-evaluate the "stain of torture"?

Even in peaceful Germany do you remember how intensively the German judicial system shaked at the Gaefgen case, where the life of a single boy was at stake and torture was threatened?
Dont you think that the majority of German people would be fine with torture being applied to islamist suspects after a similar strike as 9/11 on German soil?
At the latest once further plans would be uncovered this way, they would consent.

It has started to become a topic here right now with German djihadists fighting in Syria - what will go one once they are back battle-hardened?
Have you read the other day about 50 % of Germans thinking that Islam itself is a threat to our society? Islam - not Islamism.
So much suspicion even without a 9/11 experience..

I think in case of a successful terror strike killing hundreds or more, people here would not allow to be fooled by them for long. When extremists mock our societies by relying on rights while plotting cold blooded murder, Germans would have even less problems than Americans in taking the gloves off.

[David]

@Zyme, I thought you are a lawyer!

It doesn't matter if the majority of Americans and Germans approve of torture. Torture violates the US Constitution as well as the Grundgesetz - so if we want to torture we first have to change the laws.

President Bush took an oath of office to uphold the US Constitution. Clearly, he failed to do so, and so should have been impeached.

Finally, there is not a shred of evidence that torture is an effective technique of interrogation. There is an abundance of evidence that torture produces unreliable or false information.

[Zyme]

David, being a lawyer should not limit one's creativity in finding solutions - a motto I am sure many German lawyers have approved of in the 30s ;-)

But you are right of course in that it would have to be regulated. Which would create a ton of modifications in each our legal systems.
One way might be what is called "Feindstrafrecht" in German law science. It distinguishes between foes and ordinary humans, undermining the equality of men.

Your last point of course is also very correct - at some point people would tell anything under pressure. The question is whether people would pay this notion any mind in a state of emergency.
But honestly David, what other robust means are there, except making suspects disappear?