The Vast Wasteland

So, it was 3 am the other night (or morning, whatever) and I was still awake, my mind still winding down from the day. I wasn't quite ready to go to sleep, but I wasn't up to start working on anything productive that would keep me up until dawn either. That left me with one option...TV. However, at 3 am I found my choices severely limited. Unless I wanted to watch an infomercial for "male enhancement" products (same infomercial on six different channels, I hope someone's alerted the CDC about this apparent epidemic of need for "enhancement", sounds like a public health disaster in the making), my only choices were a soul-killing dating show on MTV or an author discussing his new book on the Bush administration on C-SPAN. Naturally, I picked the dating show.

After a couple of minutes, though, I could feel my brain cells committing suicide in protest, so I switched back to C-SPAN. The book in question is titled "The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder." Cheery title, eh? The author, a former prosecutor, suggests that President Bush can be tried for the murders of all the American troops that have died in Iraq. You can find more information at the book's website here.

He makes a novel argument, but ultimately trying to suggest that the President is guilty of murder for exercising his power as Commander in Chief is foolish and unhelpful. Admittedly, the current administration has used the role of Commander in Chief as a justification to ignore any laws or conventions that it finds inconvenient, but that's precisely why the overblown rhetoric of a book like this drives me up the wall. There is plenty to criticize with how this administration went to war, but an accusation of murder is overreaching and distracts from legitimate criticism. It just seems like more of the trend of politics as bloodsport, and that doesn't do anything to make the country better, it just drags us all down into the dirt.

Admittedly, putting the word "Murder" in the title is certainly sexier than a more reasonable title involving words like "Misled" or "Incompetent", so I'm sure it will sell well to the angry left.