FROST: So what in a sense, you're saying is that there are certain situations, and the Huston Plan or that part of it was one of them, where the president can decide that it's in the best interests of the nation or something, and do something illegal.
NIXON: Well, when the president does it that means that it is not illegal.
FROST: By definition.
NIXON: Exactly. Exactly. If the president, for example, approves something because of the national security, or in this case because of a threat to internal peace and order of significant magnitude, then the president's decision in that instance is one that enables those who carry it out, to carry it out without violating a law. Otherwise they're in an impossible position.
FROST: So, that in other words, really you were saying in that answer, really, between the burglary and murder, again, there's no subtle way to say that there was murder of a dissenter in this country because I don't know any evidence to that effect at all. But, the point is: just the dividing line, is that in fact, the dividing line is the president's judgment?
NIXON: Yes, and the dividing line and, just so that one does not get the impression, that a president can run amok in this country and get away with it, we have to have in mind that a president has to come up before the electorate. We also have to have in mind, that a president has to get appropriations from the Congress. We have to have in mind, for example, that as far as the CIA's covert operations are concerned, as far as the FBI's covert operations are concerned, through the years, they have been disclosed on a very, very limited basis to trusted members of Congress. I don't know whether it can be done today or not.
When George Bush signs orders that dispense with American law, the Geneva Conventions, and explicitly authorizes the torture of prisoners (some until death), he's using Nixon's rationale.
As Sullivan says;
Bush's crimes are far greater than Nixon's - because war crimes are far graver than burglaries. And there is no statute of limitations for war crimes.In that context, compare what Americans have done, in terms of punishment, to war criminals of other nations. Nuremberg.. Baghdad..
In Bush's case, the horrifying attacks on 9/11 exposed America for it's Americans. We gave Bush the "Nixon doctrine" (to coin a phrase I guess). There was hardly a person, except those dirty fucking hippies on the left, that was going to tell Bush that he could not violate any law at his discretion in order to "keep us safe".
Look at the quote at the top of my blog from Doug. That was the national sentiment. We had to "make them suffer", regardless of who the "they" were. It did not matter how "they" were made to suffer, "they" simply had to learn that you can't "screw with the United States".
There are very, very, very, few of us who believe that the rule of law is at it's most important when the threat and danger is at it's highest. Regardless of the threat.. regardless of what we are told is at stake.. never, under any circumstances, should we simply give anyone a pass to violate the law... ever.
I would think that is completely obvious, but this is America. We are not what we believe we are... and when the nation simply trusts an individual, or a small group, out of fear for our own lives, it should be patently obvious that we will be lied to in order gain that consent.
It is the fear that drives those people.. that majority.. the cowards. It is false bravado, and testosterone fueled rage against something.. anything.. that causes them to desire others "suffer".. but doing so from where it's safe... where they won't get bloody in the process.
And it was the dirty fucking hippies that were right all along. We try to persuade the rest of the nation.. to make people understand that what is truly important is how we define ourselves in the most dire times, not by how lose our collective minds over individual events.
The rule of law is bigger than one of us. It's bigger than all of us. I would have thought that was obvious.
Meanwhile.. in about a month, a war criminal is going to move to Dallas. Lovely. And as Sully says.. odds are that Bush has no idea what he's done... and the depressing part is that I'm sure a lot of people are, to this day, glad he did it.
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