WikiLeaks Case Likened To Civil War Espionage

[struggle4progress]

3. The problem of prosecuting Bush et al is essentially political in nature

Bush had sufficient political clout to involve SCOTUS and the corporate media in the rigging of the 2000 election, and thereafter he and his cronies continued to consolidate their political position for nearly eight years

That fact implies: quite a substantial number of politically skilled and politically connected persons, including assets in the media and on the Federal bench, as well as in Congress, will reliably and effectively oppose any prosecution of the Bush era gangsters for an extended period

To judge the time frame required for prosecution, we can examine just how long has been required elsewhere around the world to begin to bring major political criminals to justice, after an essentially peaceful regime change. Pinochet, for example, stepped down in 1990, but the process of beginning to prosecute the criminal activities of his era has only recently begun in Chile. The architects of the dirty war in Argentina during the late 1970s similarly lost power after the 1982 Falklands fiasco, but trials associated with their crimes have begun only recently. The amnesty for the 1970s dirty war in Uruguay, likewise, was only recently overturned by the legislature there. Such historical cases suggest that two to three decades are often required for sufficient changes in the political climate to occur to permit prosecutions

So the current challenge is to begin the long work towards principled changes in public opinion that will facilitate prosecution after a large enough fraction of opponents to prosecution have lost much of their existing power by age and by natural mortality