Prosecute George W. Bush for Illegal Acts

Ivan Eland
1/24/2009

The Obama administration is reluctant to turn over too many rocks in the Bush administration’s conduct in the War on Terror. Obama has pledged to reach a post-partisan nirvana, and Republicans could condemn any investigation of Bush administration abuse of the republic as a partisan witch-hunt. Also, the Obama administration has a conflict of interest in pursuing investigations and prosecutions against Bush administration officials because now that Obama is president, he may not want to entirely discredit Bush’s precedents, which significantly expanded executive powers.

Yet in the expanse of human history, the existence of republican government has been rare and short-lived by comparison. Even in recent years, when republicanism has spread the farthest, we forget how fragile the experiment is. The stakes are high, and the Obama administration needs to beat down the autocratic precedents left by the previous administration. The only way it can do so is by bringing criminal cases against the high level perpetrators.

This action will not be bipartisan, and the Republicans will rally and claim that Bush and his advisers had good intentions and were just attempting to protect the country in the wake of the September 11 attacks. But the rule of law and constitutional protections are needed most to protect citizens when the government is wielding power to respond to a security crisis. Furthermore, even if you rob a bank and give the proceeds to charity (and the Bush administration’s intentions weren’t even that charitable), you are still guilty of robbing the bank.

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