We Will Not Forget Lynndie England

[Wizard777]

At this point Bush has a better record of prosecuting and punishing torture than Obama does. Let us remember Ms. Lynndie England who carried out the orders from upon high. We now know these claims that were denied at the time to be truth. For her role in the tortures the Bush Administration authorized. She has been placed on trial, convicted, and sentenced to prison. She was forced to have her baby in prison and her new born son will be 11 year old before he gets to see his mother outside of a prison. Now Obama thinks the people that devised and authorized these techniques should not be inconvenienced by the legal repercussions of their actions;. I think Obama is failing to realize the true damage these illegal policies have done. Not only to our nations integrity and honor. But our own troops that carried out these orders. They too relied upon the legal opinion rendered by the DOJ and passed down the chain of command to them. Yet these lowly grunts have been sent to prison for basically not knowing better and trusting their chain of command. But the people who have formal educations in the law and are proclaimed to be scholars. These people have no burden of knowing better like Ms. England. How easy is it to be a scholar when everyone is going to say your right especially when everyone knows you're DEAD WRONG?

So the dilemma that Obama now faces is will he faithfully execute the laws in accordance to his constitutional duty as President or will he pardon EVERYONE. Beginning with the soldiers that were tried, convicted, and imprisoned. He must also remember that we are STILL at war. So there are provisions of the Geneva Convention that he must comply with to avail our troops of it's protections. He must be willing to be responsible for those in his chain of command. This includes the CIA and other international and military intelligence organizations. The Geneva Convention places responsibility for these grave breaches with the High Contracting Party and Enemy Power. Not the troops entrusted with their care. Investigation of these grave breaches should be conducted from the top down. Not the bottom up. But since this is the mis-course taken by the Bush administration. It has been established that crimes have been committed. It is also now established that those crimes were authorized by the White House. This too is a crime more commonly called aiding and abetting. Now prosecutions must follow not only the chain of command. But the evidentiary chain as well. President Obama cannot pick and choose which links of the chain he will and will not be responsible for. He must be responsible for the ENTIRE chain. Including that link forged by his predecessor President Bush.