Section Three:
Wartime Atrocities
* This section is not about battle deaths in wartime or a president going to war, but atrocities committed against civilians and the roles presidents played in those war crimes. Just committing America to a war is not always enough to get make one a war criminal. Reasonable persons can disagree about whether it was right to go into a particular war. But only the most vicious, immoral, or amoral would agree to mass murdering civilians, torture, carpet bombing cities, assassinations, or the pardon of those who commit such crimes.
* And yet many Americans are reluctant to admit our presidents, generals, and soldiers, sailors, and airmen can commit precisely such crimes. People on both the political left and right often do so. A leftist might argue that the true guilt only falls on political leaders, or that soldiers have been so dehumanized they cannot be blamed. A conservative might have such a romanticized view of soldiers and veterans that they cannot believe any of them could do such atrocities. Or they may justify it by saying a soldier “had to” in order to survive. This is the deepest insult to the great majority of veterans, including combat veterans, who never committed war crimes.
* The Nuremberg Trials established the precedent that just following orders is not a defense. The Uniform Code of Military Justice recognizes this precedent and incorporates it into military law in the concept of command responsibility. Not only is it illegal to commit war crimes, an officer or sergeant who fails to stop human rights violations can and should be prosecuted for failing to stop such crimes. A soldier who is ordered to commit human rights violations is bound by military law to disobey such illegal orders.
* Presidents, unfortunately, are given sovereign immunity. By international law, no head of state can be prosecuted for war crimes while they are still in office. Even prosecuting them after they leave office proves difficult. Thankfully it is getting easier. Leading war criminals from Argentina, Chad, Chile, Congo, Guatemala, Iraq, Liberia, Peru, Rwanda, Serbia, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, and Uganda have all been prosecuted.
* Similar efforts are deservedly aimed at American war criminals. Henry Kissinger, GW Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzalez, John Yoo, and George Tenet all face likely prosecution in most of the world for war crimes. Some jurists in South Africa also called for Obama and Biden to be arrested for drone assassinations. After they leave office, likely much of the world may wish to prosecute the two and others in the Obama administration for these atrocities as well.
* This section is on the roles all American presidents played on war crimes during the time of their presidency. It includes both those who committed war crimes, whether or not the law would have prosecuted them at the time. It also includes those who permitted war crimes to be done by US military or government agents, as well as those who by going into wars of aggression created the conditions for war crimes to happen.