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Donald Rumsfeld’s legacy: war crimes?
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Poor Donald Rumsfeld – the former secretary of defense who oversaw some of the most flagrant human rights abuses in American history may soon face charges of war crimes in a German court. The Center for Constitutional Rights, an American organization, filed a suit in Germany because it is one of the few countries in the world that will try people for war crimes, regardless of their nationality.
Rumsfeld is not alone. Alberto Gonzalez, the U.S. attorney general, is one of many. But Rummy has the unfortunate status of not being employed by the U.S. government anymore, which makes him vulnerable to prosecution (finally) and perhaps culpable for horrible occurrences like what happened within the walls of Abu Ghraib.
I’ve been waiting for this for a long time. Personally, I wanted to see Rummy stand trial in The Hague – the proper place to try Saddam Hussein as well – alongside George W. Bush, Karl Rove and Dick Cheney.
However, the majority of my “most wanted” list is still in office and therefore immune to the knife of prosecution.
But I’ll be patient. After all, history will be the judge of whether or not these men are demons or saints. Rumsfeld probably did the best he could in one of the highest-pressure jobs in existence; after Sept. 11 it was his responsibility to keep the country safe. While we haven’t been attacked since, what was the cost to human dignity?
Abu Ghraib isn’t the whole story of Rummy’s inhumanity, nor is Guantanamo detention sans habeas corpus. What we often forget is how Rumsfeld disregarded the opinions of his field commanders and failed to provide armored Hummers for troop patrols, let alone combat boots. Worst of all he fostered a sit-on-our-hands, wait-and-see policy in Iraq, which has killed almost 3,000 U.S. servicemen and women, not to mention an estimated 650,000 Iraqi civilians.
Whether Rumsfeld’s incompetence in keeping us safe overseas was deliberate or not is irrelevant. Someone has to be responsible for Vietnam-esque mismanagement and merely allowing Rumsfeld to be tried will send a clear message to the rest of the world: “We’re not trying to rule with impunity. Even our best and brightest aren’t immune from justice.”
In recent years, our country has become the arbiter of good and the destroyer of evil, in its own mind. With a self-conceived reputation for running the world with beneficence, we carried that role to the extreme, pointing fingers to Tehran, Pyongyang and Iraq, with Rumsfeld at Bush’s side. In the process we’ve soiled our reputation and much of the world doesn’t recognize our claim to the moral high ground anymore.
I don’t know whether or not new Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has the right kind of cleaner to purge the atmosphere of ugliness that settled in the Pentagon during Rummy’s reign, but it’s at least a fresh start.
Perhaps Gates will be just as bad in our “war against terror.” But if Rumsfeld is convicted, that will make Gates more conscientious and might cause others in the administration to think twice about their actions.
After all, public office has to end sometime and someone might be waiting at your desk as you’re cleaning out, eager to hand you a summons.
Michael McLaskey