From Nuremberg To Washington

Read Time:2 Minute, 41 Second
Prisoners in the dock at Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal. Pic by Encyclopedia Britannica

by Glenn R. Geist

I listened on 60 minutes to the last remaining prosecutor from the Nuremberg trials in the 40’s say all wars make murderers out of all decent people. They don’t see it as murder, they see it as patriotism.

Political wars seem to make liars and fools (and worse) of decent people as well. When Steven Miller told us in chilling tones, with that chilling face of his, that the power of the president will not be questioned, I thought of those famous trials of my childhood, which I could not yet watch on TV but my parents would talk about. I thought one of the messages of those proceedings was that following orders wasn’t a successful defense for having committed mass murder and the question of following an illegal order was at the core. Indeed our officers and enlisted personnel must swear to obey any legal order.

I’m not going to describe the difficulties of getting away with that, with declaring an order illegal either by a military person or a Justice department officer.  Sally Yates knows it however and has paid the price for it. We too shared in paying that price because, after what seems like centuries of being told king-like, tyrannical Obama was exceeding his authority, we have a replacement that can’t tolerate even the other branches of government challenging his edicts and commands;  even though our government was designed to do just that. The balance of powers seems anathema to Trump who apparently had a hard time believing he couldn’t override courts and pass legislation and prosecute by fiat.

Yates, of course has so far been vindicated by the courts, Pyrrhic a victory though it has so far been. It was obvious during yesterday’s hearings that the Republicans are still shocked and amazed that an attorney General would dare to do such a thing or even be interested in a matter the White House considered “internal.” The matter of course concerns the nation greatly: a National Security adviser on Turkish and Russian payrolls, making deals for immensely profitable policy change unknown to us all except probably to Trump and his inner coven of profiteers. Since it involves an adversarial and powerful nation, it’s quite a bit worse than Nixon trying to rig his re-election or the Teapot Dome Scandal and those run-of-the-mill crooked President precedents.

It remains to be seen how well Trump will handle this growing problem, whether it’s more infantile twitter attacks, witch hunts and the attempted persecution of the innocent or Nixonian resignation. I expect the former. I expect it will either end in a stalemate or a lengthy extraction from the caves and bunkers rather than some legal MOAB. I expect the Crime family/dictator scenario to continue too long and to continue to have the support of the people about to be bled dry hanging out there in the wind. Trump’s power will indeed be questioned and he will continue to have no honest answers and we are going to have to live with it anyway.

About Post Author

Glenn Geist

Glenn Geist lives in South Florida and wastes most of his time boating, writing, complaining and talking on the radio
Happy
Happy
0 %
Sad
Sad
0 %
Excited
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
Angry
0 %
Surprise
Surprise
0 %
0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of

4 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Glenn R. Geist
6 years ago

Well, he’s working at his Nixon impersonation and Republicans being cowards are going to abandon him at some point. I think this proves he’s scared to death and that his close buddies can’t control him and perhaps that some of them are guilty as hell too.

I have to wonder at what point, does Uncle Vlad see Trump as a liability and send him some of his special KGB Tea?

And yes, Trump certainly has spent time studying Hitler and he’s obviously fascinated with dictators and people who seize power and hold it. Unfortunately for him most of those people were a whole lot smarter. As to distraction – that may be the scariest part. I’m hoping there will be a few more people willing to stand up to him and some of them in uniform.

6 years ago

They hung the Nazis. Unfortunately I don’t see that happening with Trump, no matter how well deserved.

Admin
6 years ago

I’m a student of the Nazi era, and post war. I’ve spent hundreds of hours reading, and studying the testimony presented at the trials. The similarities between the two regimes, Trump and Hitler, are startling, particularly the art of distraction.

6 years ago

It’s starting now and it will continue, especially at the conclusion of the FBI investigation.

Previous post 7,000 Bodies From 19th Century ‘Insane Asylum’ Found Buried Under University of Mississippi Campus
Next post More Troops In Afghanistan: Policy Or Distraction?
4
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x