Cheney Is Living Proof-If We're NOT Brave Enough To Enforce Our Laws-We LOSE

[kpete]

It’s currently fashionable to believe that political and ideological battles are “real,” and it is the law that is empty symbolism. But Cheney stands as an illustration of the real-life, practical value of the law. Torture really did become legal after 9/11, and even after it was repudiated—again and again—it will always be legal with regard to Dick Cheney and the others who perpetrated it without consequence. The law wasn’t a hollow symbol after 9/11. It was the only fixed system we had. We can go on pretending that torture is no longer permissible in this country or under international law, but until there are legal consequences for those who order or engage in torture, we will only be pretending. Cheney is the beneficiary of that artifice…

The tragedy is that it doesn’t matter if we are all Cheneyites now. That there is even one Cheney is enough. He understands and benefits from the fact that the law is still all on his side; that there is only heated rhetoric on ours. As John Adams famously put it, the United States was intended to be a government of laws, not of men. Dick Cheney is living proof that if we are not brave enough to enforce our laws, we will forever be at the mercy of a handful of men.

http://www.slate.com/id/2302751/

[tularetom]

1. When the history of the Obama administration is written

Looking back on it from 30 or 40 years in the future, the biggest disappopintment of this administration will be its failure to enforce our laws with regard to this war criminal.

Obama may think he is achieveing some bipartisan good will by giving cheney a free pass, but he is actually complicit in these crimes if he knows about them and does nothing.

Ironically I can imagine the next republican administration throwing the book at Obama for failure to take action while ignoring the very crimes he didn't act on.

[xiamiam]

2. the change is that without investigating cheney we have lost hope in justice and decency

i think you are on target when you say he will be held accountable for things he decided to not address