{"id":501,"date":"2010-02-22T12:48:42","date_gmt":"2010-02-22T12:48:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/apagansblog\/2010\/02\/john-yoo-president-has-power-to-order-massacre-of-an-entire-village.html"},"modified":"2010-02-22T12:48:42","modified_gmt":"2010-02-22T12:48:42","slug":"john-yoo-president-has-power-to-order-massacre-of-an-entire-village","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/02\/john-yoo-president-has-power-to-order-massacre-of-an-entire-village.html","title":{"rendered":"John Yoo: President has power to order massacre of an entire village"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nUPDATE below<\/span><\/p>\n

John Yoo, whose illegal actions for
\nGeorge Bush have been defended by Obama’s so-called ‘Justice’ Department, has
\nargued the President could legally order an entire village of civilians
\nmassacred.  <\/span>Michael Isikoff at
\nNewsweek caught the follow depravity<\/a> in Mr. Yoo’s testimony to the Dept. of
\n‘Justice.’: <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Q: I guess the question I’s raising is, does this particular law really affect the President’s war-making abilities….
Yoo: Yes, certainly.
Q. What is your authority for that?
Yoo: Because this is an option the President might use in war.
Q: What about ordering a village of resistants to be massacred? … Is that a power that the president could legally-
Yoo: Yeah. Although, let me say this. So, certainly, that would fall within the commander-in-chief’s power over tactical decisions.
Q: To order a village of civilians to be [exterminated]?
Yoo: Sure.<\/b><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/div>\n
German war criminals were executed for exactly the same kind of acts using exactly the same kind of logic.<\/a> Yoo would have been a wonderful counsel for Hitler.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n

Our founding fathers and their
\nallies fought a revolution so men like this could not be in positions of
\npower.  <\/span>Yoo is a standing disgrace
\nto the United States and to Boalt Law School at Berkeley, where he teaches his
\ndepravity to others.  <\/span>Too many
\nlawyers are simply hired guns, intellectual mercenaries whose souls and brains
\nare at auction for the highest bidder. 
\n<\/span>John Yoo seems a perfect role model for them.<\/p>\n

I imagine the same
\n‘conservatives’ and ‘conservative Christians’ who defend torture will defend
\nmass murder: the logic is the same and so is the moral depravity. I
\nincreasingly see no significant difference between them and the Nazis beyond
\nthe latter’s greater opportunity to demonstrates their real character.<\/p>\n

In the readers’ comments on Isikoff’s
\narticle some people brought up Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  <\/span>Good and uncomfortable point.  <\/span>There are lots and lots of moral issues
\nregarding those events, and I personally think they were unjustified.  But I want to focus on only one dimension of these counter examples because it is important
\nenough to stand alone on its own merits, and disturbing in its implications.<\/p>\n

Japan had declared war on the US,
\nalong with a simultaneous military attack.  <\/span>Iraq
\nwas 100% innocent of doing anything to the US.  <\/span>No 9\/11 involvement, no weapons of mass destruction, no
\nmilitary even capable by then of doing much to anybody other than Iraqis who
\ndid not like Saddam Hussein.  <\/span>So in
\none case the devastation was brought on people whose government started a
\nbloody war.  <\/span>In the other we are
\ndiscussing a war of choice waged upon an innocent country (no matter how nasty
\nits government) where a village of civilians who resisted our efforts could be
\nmassacred: every man, woman, and child.<\/p>\n

Anyone who cannot see the
\ndifference is probably a re-incarnation of one of Genghis Khan’s advisers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

UPDATE<\/span><\/p>\n

Glenn Greenwald has provided two good discussions of recent developments over Yoo’s criminality and the cover up regarding it.  The first discusses outright lies told by ‘conservatives’ <\/a>concerning the Dept. of Justice report – but conservative leaders have generally long taken leave of concern for truth as Greenwald proves.  His second report gives additional background data on the cover-up perpetrated<\/a> by the DOJ and Obama administration.  Too many Democrats love power as much as Republicans, and only disagree as to who will abuse it.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATE below John Yoo, whose illegal actions for George Bush have been defended by Obama’s so-called ‘Justice’ Department, has argued the President could legally order an entire village of civilians massacred.  Michael Isikoff at Newsweek caught the follow depravity in Mr. Yoo’s testimony to the Dept. of ‘Justice.’: <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events"],"yoast_head":"\nJohn Yoo: President has power to order massacre of an entire village - A Pagan's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/apagansblog\/2010\/02\/john-yoo-president-has-power-to-order-massacre-of-an-entire-village.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"John Yoo: President has power to order massacre of an entire village - 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