I'm antiwar, but I recognize that the world is a complicated, messy, morally gray place, where it's not always clear what the best course of action is going to be if you want to save the largest number of lives. So I don't know if the withdrawal option is right. Iraq might plunge into worse chaos -- something withdrawal advocates should think about before being too judgmental of the motives of the military intervention types. But if Kristof favors the US going around using the military in an alleged effort to do good, the very least he can do is to insist that when war crimes are committed as a result of policy decisions, then high-ranking American officials (not just sergeants and lieutenants) should face long prison terms. That would provide strong incentives for political and military leaders to plan carefully and really think things through before they start dropping bombs on cities and favoring torture. It would also firmly impress on the world that we really mean what we say.
As it happens, I don't think we mean what we say and don't expect to see anything of the sort done and don't for one second think that the Bush Administration really cares about humanitarian issues in any serious way, but Kristof is probably serious and if so, then he ought to point it out when we commit war crimes.
That's from Donald Johnson, guest-posting at Body and Soul, with some thoughts about Nicholas Kristof's pieces in the NYTimes. Kristof has been defending our current role in Iraq.
Johnson's suggestions that we should punish war crimes much more zealously are right on target.
An email arrived today from the Center for Constitutional Rights with the news that they are organizing a campaign to support the investigation of the incidents at Abu Ghraib by a German prosecutor. Here's the petition which you can sign at the CCR's website.
I am writing to express my support for the criminal complaint filed
against U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, et al., by the Center
for Constitutional Rights, represented by Wolfgang Kaleck of Berlin, on
November 30, 2004. I kindly request that you begin the investigations
regarding the incidents at Abu Ghraib and others, unless the United States
itself begins an independent investigation of the high-ranking officials
and members of the military responsible for these war crimes. Because the
U.S. is failing to fully investigate, and because the U.S. is not a member
of the International Criminal Court, there is no other forum to turn to in
seeking justice and accountability.