Chris's answer and my follow up

Chris

While I appreciate your opinion I must point out 2 very fundamental differences in the WWII and present day scenarios...
First, inside Germany there was not the same level of "as it happened" media attention on the atrocities - there was no free press reporting the crimes as they happened whereas in the US these crimes happened right under our noses - there was a congressional debate on whether or not waterboarding constitutes torture for chrissakes!
Second, the military tribunals were conducted immediately upon the ending of the war and the German public was able to purge and move on with their lives with some sense of justice. This has already dragged on for 6 years with nothing but lack of accountability and denials.

Garfield

Sure, but your point of view comes from the same breeding grounds of the philosophy terrorists adopt. Americans pay taxes, taxes buy bombs and bullets which kill our people therefore every American deserves to die.

Not every American agreed with the Bush administration, not every American ever agrees with their President but they are not all cut from the same cloth and need to be condemned as criminals.

I will agree with one thing, without an investigation into any wrongdoing and consequences for any wrongdoing, then it is possible that a great crime may have been committed which may go unpunished. Worse yet, it sets a precedent that can easily be followed in future similar situations which is the real problem with not deconstructing events to figure if and how mistakes were made.

My Answer to Chris Sapienza

Ok dear friend, here is why I don't agree 100%. The idea of punishing the entire collective for the crimes of a few is in itself a war crime...though I must admit, I am a big fan of embargoes. Even after WWII the entire German population was not declared as war criminals, nor were the citizens of Japan or Italy or any other country for that matter. In Serbia, Sudan, Rwanda, etc only those directly involved in war crimes were considered for trial or even accused. When you start accusing the entire population of a Democracy of war crimes because of what their leaders do- or do not do- then you criminalize their votes and their voice. There are those in the US who have always fought against what they considered to be "evil," now because of the lack of a positive result to your liking you would label them as war criminals?

Chris Sapienza's Politics

OK, my buddy Chris wrote this and I'm a wee little jealous since I have been speaking about this but have not written anything on the subject:

"Why every citizen is a war criminal: A letter to America.

Dear America,

In 1945-46 the Nuremberg trials were conducted in front of US Military Tribunals to prosecute the heinous crimes against humanity committed by the Nazis in World War II. While the first of the twelve trials prosecuting top Nazi officials was was the most famous, the third should be of particular interest to you right now.

Officially called The United States of America vs. Josef Altstötter, et al., this trial is more commonly referred to as "the judge's trial." In this case, the US prosecuted 16 high ranking justice officials, including 9 members of the German ministry of justice.

While 4 were acquitted, 12 were indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity for "the abuse of the judicial and penal process, resulting in mass murder, torture, plunder of private property." Essentially, the German justice department had manipulated the laws of the land to "make legal" the conduct of Hitler and his team."

read the rest here:

http://myopinionshouldbeyourstoo.blogspot.com/2009/07/why-every-american-citizen-is-war.html

The Greatest Truth

What would would be the transaltion of I Think, I Spoke, I believe! Because those would be truest expression of what it means to be human, The truth is lost in all of that to what I firmly believe must be reality because "I" think it. Not as some expression of a psychopathic lunatic but as the thoughts of a rational person.

I mean really, how could "I" be crazy when I'm so sane and normal and people think "I'm" funny, amusing, personabble, quaint, etc?

Tonight, "I made" a girl expose her "boobies" to a bar full of people not because I thought it was fun, but knowing that I could do it. I never met, never knew her before 9:30pm EST, but knew I had that power...and I abused it. I feel somewhat sad, somewhat amused and entirely ambivalent about the whole affair. Would I again abuse a power that is not explicitly thrust upon me but which I implicitly knew I had because of experience, worldliness, etc?...Of course I would...it's human nature. Do I feel good about that? stay tuned...life keeps changing.

Vene Vidi Vici

I came, I saw, I conquered.

Nowadays it should be pense, dice, veritas -- correct my Latin please -- but anyways, after listening to a few people spewing I was led to believe that people think Think It, Say It, It's True! no matter how non-sensical it is.