Cheney's not a war criminal
Not even evil.Neither was Sharon. Nor Arafat. Nor Gerry Adams. Nor Curtis LeMay. Nor Mohammed Atta. Nor, dare I say it, Osama Bin Laden..
They were all responsible for doing terrible things to other human beings: torturing them, incinerating them in a Birmingham pub , vaporizing a hundred thousand of them with one bomb . Or 9/11. But not because they are evil. They all thought they were doing good; defending their own people by attacking their enemy.
We can deplore their choices. I do. Mostly.I Agreed with Hiroshima. But to characterize them as criminals is to adopt another version of their own behavior :ceasing to see them as human beings , just cardboard characters in the long running morality play in our own heads. Enter the devil, Stage Left.
Criticize them for faulty strategies. Or for employing means that are disproportionate to their ends.But not for being motiveless villains.
And stop clamoring for a War Crimes Tribunal. Or a Congressional hearing. Or execution. For someone who has done the same sort of cruel thing that all leaders have always done. .
