4/14/2008

Bush Knew

It's a long-running Washington tradition to release bad news on Friday afternoons in the hope that no one notices, and it happened again last Friday in yet another Bush news dump. So far, it has worked perfectly and the story has garnered far less attention than it deserves.

Ever since last week's revelation that top White House officials ordered and even choreographed prisoner torture in Guantanamo Bay and other locations, there has been rampant speculation on what President Bush knew and when he knew it.

Speculate no more. In an interview by ABC News released on Friday, Bush said he was fully in the loop on Vice President Cheney and others directing this abomination. "Well, we started to connect the dots in order to protect the American people," he said without a care in the world. "And yes, I'm aware our national security team met on this issue. And I approved."

"I approved." He knew that prisoners were being tortured, months and even years after they were originally captured and long after any useful information was extracted.

"I approved." He knew that his senior staff actively conspired to violate federal laws against torture.

"I approved." He knew that what he and his inner circle were doing was wrong, for they did their best to hide it for as long as they could.

"I approved." Right there, you have the words that have now sealed George W. Bush's place in history. He will be remembered as the president who approved the beating and torture of prisoners, of jailing suspects without charges or trial, of indiscriminate spying on the American people, of launching an unprovoked invasion of another country and then bogging our troops down in an endless quagmire, of not even trying to prevent 9/11 from occurring and then rushing to politicize it any way he could.

"I'm not so sure what's so startling about that," Bush said a moment later, depending on the public's "Bush fatigue" to let him get away with it.

Bush may think it's no big deal to torture people he's already declared guilty without a trial, but others disagree. We now have a tailor-made case for impeachment and removal of the president and vice president, but Congress won't move unless we shame them into doing so. Contact your senators and representatives and demand impeachment, for the good of the nation.

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