BRATTLEBORO — Although it's receding from the airwaves and from the thoughts of our politicians, the war in Iraq continues. As of April 1, 4,263 American soldiers had died, and tens of thousands have been wounded and compromised. And even these somber numbers pale in comparison with the deaths of up to one million Iraqis and the displacement of millions more. President Obama plans to keep tens of thousands of troops in Iraq for years to come, so, although the casualty rate has declined in the past year or so, we will continue to see an ever-mounting number of deaths due to this war.
With a Constitution as famously robust as ours (a fact that Brattleboro Union High School senior Caroline Heydinger reminds us of elsewhere in this issue), with a judicial system that has weathered many a national crisis, and with a cherished mythology of democracy and love of freedom, how can this nation refuse to address an executive branch power grab that led to a war of aggression, systemic torture, and the loss of civil liberties?
But, if the assessment of a group of Vermonters who met with Senator Patrick Leahy on March 30 is correct, Leahy's idea of a truth commission - an official panel to learn the hard and sobering lessons from the mistakes of the past decade - is not going anywhere. The idea of a special prosecutor has even less of a chance.
So President Obama, as circumstances unfold and affect his military adventure in Afghanistan, can rest assured that he will be able to do anything that he thinks that he needs to, legal or not, foolish or not, without being held accountable if his war goes awry.
The Bush administration, with the able assistance of the U.S. Congress, managed to build a strong foundation for a “unitary executive” government, with greatly enhanced powers for the President. Rather than amending the Constitution to make these new powers legal, the Congress prefers to turn a blind eye to the constitutional contradictions inherent in the extralegal actions of our previously elected officials and their blind followers.
Since January, 43 American soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan; 1,123 coalition forces have died in that military action as of April 1. By the time we extricate ourselves, how many more will have died? How many Afghan villages and towns will have been bombed and left with dead civilians and deposits of depleted uranium?
The price of presidential folly can be enormous. We cannot afford to accept this new paradigm of power.
If we refuse to face the legal and moral realities of the invasion of Iraq and the “war on terror,” if we refuse to investigate and prosecute crimes wherever they are found, then we make a mockery of our nation and ourselves.