Gary can you name any president since FDR who hasn't violate the Constitution? I can't.
You may well be right....I'm not a historian and wouldn't claim to know one way or the other, but they all take that oath of office and I think the American people have a right to expect them to uphold it. When key provisions of the Constitution are violated as openly and repeatedly as during the Bush-Cheney administration....well, you know my views.
If we are going to start trying war criminals, it's going to be a long docket. I assume you'll add in the North Vietnamese, most of sub-shara africa and all the usual suspects?
You're absolutely right, there is a long, long list of people who have violated human rights, the Geneva conventions and UN conventions against torture etc. If they had all been held to account, prosecuted, convicted and punished.....perhaps, just perhaps, rational people (whom I would think Bush, Cheney and Rumseld are) might think long and hard before committing these crimes.
I'm pretty sure that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the others who developed these policies and authorized the use of torture never expected to be held to account for their crimes....and they ARE crimes. Unfortunately, some Americans seem to have a hard time with the idea that our own leaders should be held to the same standards as other leaders around the world...such as with violations by the North Vietnamese, Chinese, etc you mentioned.
As far as I'm concerned, whether it was Bush, Clinton, JFK, Ho Chi Minh or whomever doesn't matter.....none of them are above the law, especially with something as serious and fundamental as these sorts of crimes. If you don't agree, then I would say "the rule of law" really means nothing to you.
Gary Benson
Eagle River, Alaska