Stephen M. Walt: War Crimes and Misdemeanors!

In a recent email from the "Council on Foreign Relations", announcing the release of a Special Report on "Justice Beyond the Hague: Supporting the Prosecution of International Crimes in National Courts.", supposedly a well-crafted document arguing that the United States, other like-minded countries, and the philanthropic community ought to do more to national courts in other countries, so that they can investigate and prosecute war crimes and other atrocities. (Too little, too late!) In my early youth, when my mother, grandmother, and I had to watch the horrible destruction of Dresden from a nearby hill, I remember singing "Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht", while my mother and grandmother wept uncontrollably! Now it's Libya's turn, to have their people slaughtered like cattle by the murderous NATO powers. Having been there, done that, my heart is completely with the tragic lot of Libya's people, and their staunch defender, Qadhafi. The United States, which I served as Advisory Tea Leader in Vietnam, should be ashamed to pile atrocity after atrocity, until nothing is left of their so-called "Humanity". Needless to say, our so-called "leaders" prefer to pile atrocity on top of atrocity, until our once glorious nation mimics the adventures of Adolf Hitler. The United States needs to do a much better job of investigating and prosecuting our armed forces' war crimes, unless we are pleased with a "don't do as I say, do as I do" scenario! When I served as Advisory Team Leader in Trung Lap, I demanded the right to personally take a load of rats down a heavily mined road to the base camp of the 25th Infantry, so that one of their surgeons could keep an eye on a possible outbreak of bubonic plague. On each occasion, I drank at least six cans of beer, so that I would feel less pain, if one of these mines would explode. As a leader, that's what you do!