Truth or Consequences

"The fact that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior does not relieve him from responsibility under international law, provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him."

The United States executed many German prisoners who tried to invoke the "I was ordered to do it" defense.. otherwise known is the Nuremberg defense.

I don't think anyone believes persons acting on behalf of the US should be executed for torturing and/or murdering prisoners of war.. but.. it's morally heinous that there would be no consequences at all.

As Herman Goering said.. if you're going to commit war crimes.. you best win the war.

/update

Glenn Greenwald has obviously been covering the release of the OLC memos, and writes;

In the United States, what Obama did yesterday is simply not done. American Presidents do not disseminate to the world documents which narrate in vivid, elaborate detail the dirty, illegal deeds done by the CIA, especially not when the actions are very recent, were approved and ordered by the President of the United States, and the CIA is aggressively demanding that the documents remain concealed and claiming that their release will harm national security. When is the last time a President did that?

Certainly Obama could direct prosecutions for war crimes, but this is not his responsibility. That's up to AG Eric Holder. More so.. it's up to the American people to demand our government prosecute the violations of law.

It's not without irony that the OLC memos explicitly point out that the US was engaging in behavior that we condemn other nations for doing, specifically referring to it as "torture". The US government, under Bush, simply asserted that the rules do not apply to us because we have some inherently "good" motive.

As Greenwald points out.. if you want to torture prisoners, including killing them during interrogation, because of some intelligence need.. then fine.. change the law to specifically allow that.

If you want to torture and kill.. then pass a law to allow torture and murder.

Right now.. I'm very proud of President Obama for shining a light on the darkest deeds in government. He had nothing, politically, to gain for doing it.. yet he did.