Mukasey's Law

at-Largely

We have Godwin's law, which argues that:

"As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one" (Wiki).

Now we have something else, something I never thought an American leader would say in public, let alone argue in front of Congress. What we now have is Mukasey's law, which I will define as such:

"When a democracy is in decline, the increasingly illegal and immoral acts of its leaders will be justified by the same arguments used by the Nazis to justify their illegal and immoral acts."(my em)

The Attorney General of the United States quite literally turned to the Nazi defense in order to argue why he won't allow the Department of Justice to investigate war crimes committed by US military and intelligence personnel under the orders of the US President. [,,,]

In other words, what Mukasey is saying is that the White House, DOD, and CIA all relied on a bad legal opinion of John Yoo (the DOJ hack), and as a result, they should not be held accountable. Before I get to the truly sinister background of this argument, let me first point out that every department's, cabinet's, and even White House's own legal council signed off on the legal permission slip to torture issued forth by John Yoo.

In fact, David Addington, Dick Cheney's legal council was promoted. Alberto Gonzales, the White House council was also promoted. Yoo went off to get a full professorship at Berkley. Not only have the legal minds behind the US torture program escaped accountability, so have their leaders and the actors who carried out the orders of those leaders. Everyone from inception to execution has been given a pass. And even though Yoo is being blamed now entirely, he too has yet to face any questions. He has not been disbarred even. It is a slap in the face of justice to watch this charade play out on the public stage, for the world to see.

More importantly, it is a failed argument already tested in the world court by morally deranged politicians, lawyers, doctors, and others we have come to call war criminals.

But not here. Oh no, this is a democracy! We don't do things like that! We have freedom to commit any crimes we wish to and not ever have to face accountability or prosecution. Bush said so!

In a perfect world there would come a day of reckoning. Probably not in this one.

Update:

The last paragraph of a 'must read' article on Mukasey by The Old Ay-rab:

Just when we were celebrating the near-demise of the hard-core conservatives in the Bush administration, we get Mukasey.

Even after you cut off the head of a rattlesnake, it doesn't die 'til sundown. True or not, I urge the administration's fading sun to speed up its westward journey.