They sow the wind, and they reap the whirlwind. ~ Hosea 8:7A Spanish court, consistent with international law, has agreed to consider prosecution of former Bush officials Alberto Gonzalez, Douglas Feith, David Addington, William Haynes, Jay Bybee, and John Yoo for their crimes as the fathers of the Guantanamo torture camp.
I admit to having a particular hatred for John Yoo, the law professor who crafted the most damnable justifications for torturing prisoners in American custody. Yoo is a soft-handed coward who readily justifies horrendous acts of inhumanity without ever dirtying his hands with the acts he has advocated. He likes the idea of torturing children; another Yoo policy the Bush Administration apparently implemented. He opposes chemical weapon bans because they would be bad for the businesses that trade in these poisons. He views the Constitution as a living document, one to be raped in the quest for power.
As a tenured law professor at the University of California, Berkeley, Yoo's dean has defended his right to be an obscenity against humanity. His colleagues are not so forgiving.
The fact is that John Yoo, and his fellow travelers in the cause of tormenting humans in American captivity, deserve to be indicted and convicted by the Spanish court. They deserve to be indicted and convicted by an American court but I am not holding out hope for that. Their war crimes are numerous and grave. They must be tried and punished not just for their own acts but so others in the future will stay their impulses toward brutality.
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