Citizen's arrests? Unfortunately, anyone who were to try such a thing would be shot or beaten, hauled away in leg irons, and held indefinately, perhaps with no charges.

You can thank the Democrats, who with few exceptions, enabled the Bush treason. You can also blame his cowardly, celebrity bound, successor, B. Obama, who showed yellow out of fear of being targeted by the Fascists, but more so because he fully intended to allow the Military, Industrial, Medical, Complex to continue and had he looked for indictments on Bush, he would not have been able to pursue his own homage to the Big Oil and Big Arms/ordinance dealers, because he planned to follow the Bush lead thus betraying those who voted more against Bush/McCain, than for Obama.

He has also failed to attempt, either by executive order or by intimidating congress with humiliation each day as did FDR with his own rash of executive Orders shaming congress into action.

I shall not again vote for the likes of Mr. Obama, and since I cannot in good conscience vote for a fascist, I shall not vote for one of the two major party candidates.

If OBama brings "Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove, Perle, Feith, Wolfowitz, Rice, and a dozen other members of the Bush administration, including Yoo and Bybee" he would cry himself to sleep nightly for he is a coward and a seeker of dynastic wealth and celebrity. I am ashamed to have voted for him. He is no FDR.

Well, there you have it, folks! If you still think that you are living in a democracy or a republic, then you just aren't paying any attention. But, wait: there's more! Stick around for the finale, if you dare.

You are preaching to the choir, Mr. Pitt. This column, and similar ones by others, should be printed in every paper in the country, on every blog, in every news magazine. It should be shouted from the rooftops if necessary! Well, none of that is likely to happen, and one has to wonder how it is possible to wake the general public up to these facts. I have been preaching for years to anyone who would listen about the crying need for "justice" to prevail in our country by using our legal system to hold these criminals accountable for their actions; I've written letters to the editors of local papers, signed petitions, forwarded same to hosts of email contacts, etc., etc., and I have sadly and reluctantly arrived at the same conclusion: I am not holding my breath. To say I am disappointed in Obama for the position he has taken on this issue is a vast understatement. I have finally reached the point of hopelessness. If there is no justice in the land for criminals at the very top of government, where is there justice for anyone at all?

Obama would not be in the hot water he appears to be in now if he had kicked ass and named names the minute he became president. By not holding his predecessors accountable for their criminal actions he simply emboldened the Republicans who lie, cheat and obstruct for their own gain.

When you do not clean house, the rats prosper. This is what we're now seeing in Congress. Rats such as Limbaugh, Coulter and the like would have nothing to say if Bush and his cronies had been exposed and made accountable for the terrible state we're in now.

Possibly the only reason Obama didn't take them to task is that he knows the Supreme Court is stacked against America, and fully in league with the corporate world which brought us the past 8 years, as witnessed with the Bush/Gore decision.

Wouldn't you think someone who writes for the Times would know the difference between "lie" and "lay." "Evidence is . . . laying all over the countryside." Laying eggs perhaps? I hope they don't hatch!

Thank you 'ANN' and 'Pete Bagnolo' above...wonderful comments. This article should be SENT TO OBAMA HIMSELF....WHY NOT DO THAT? FED-EX THIS ARTICLE TO HIM...'ALL OF US'

RISE UP PEOPLE AND FIGHT BACK...WRITE TO OBAMA AND 'DEMAND JUSTICE'. YES, HE'S AFRAID OF CHENEY, NEOCONS, CIA AND THE RIGHT WING AND PROBABLY MANY 'DEMOCRATS WHO SUPPORT THE POWER STRUCTURE, BIG OIL, DRUG COMPANIES, ETC. AND WISH TO KEEP US DOWN FOREVER AND BUILD UP HALLIBURTOON, KBR, BLACKWATER AND OTHER 'CONTRACTORS' WHO ARE ACTUALLY SET UP AS THE 'SS NAZI'S' WERE AND ARE BUILDING PRISONS IN SECRET PLACES AROUND THE GLOBE, INCLUDING AMERICA...POOR US! DEMAND 'REAL CHANGE'...DO NOT STOP!!!!!! WRITE EVERY PAPER, SEND LETTERS TO THE WHITE HOUSE, TELL THEM WE'LL HIT THE STREETS IN THE TENS OF MILLIONS OF WE DON'T SEE 'REAL CHANGE AND INVESTIGATIONS, AS THEY'RE DOING IN ENGLAND THIS WEEK. BLAIR LYING EVERY STEP OF THE WAY, PROTECTING HIS CRIMINAL BUDDIES, CHENEY, ROVE, G BUSH, RUMSFELD, AND HIMSELF! JAMES, VETERAN, NATO COMMAND, INTELLIGENCE

Mr. Pitt, Yes! I want to bring these war criminals to justice, but I can't get started and I can't find anyone else who has started. Lots of talk. Lots of talk. But no walk.

What would you suggest? Give me suggestions for specific actions, but please don't suggest that I contact my congressman or write a letter to the editor. Been there, done that -- useless. Give me a virtual sledgehammer to swing. I'll swing it, you tell me the target. Something drastic. Something that will grow and expand. Thanks.

O.k., something's up. Why in the world would the Obama gvt. give the Bushites a pass on all the law breaking and murdering of Iraqis, Afghans and American citizens? What's going on here? What else aren't we being told by the Obama people? Or, do the Obama people have any say at all? I smell a rat. There must be players we know nothing about. I hesitate to mention Illuminati or any other semi-mythical conclave. I'm sure just now most of the readers are shoving me quickly to the back of the room to face the corner. But someone else seems to be pulling the strings and playing chess with the countries, governments and citizens of the world. Who's driving this train?

'Bipartisanship' is just another word for collusion.. you are asking the criminals to try themselves. Non-partisan prosecutions would decimate both sids of the aisle & both parties know it.

I believe that all the comments are neglecting the congress. Starting one or more wars is not a presidential privilege. However if the House and the Senate sit on their hands, we get the results that can be expected. To expect the next president to really deal with this problem of presidential power is too much to expect. You wont get a president who wants to curtail his own power.

I've never been so dismayed at our country's so-called leadership.

I thought it wasn't possible to get lower than Reagan and his corrupt venality. I'll never forget his savage neglect of the AIDS crisis, an emblem forever of the quality of Republican governance.

Still, the Democrats hardly offer an alternative when they gloss over the manifest criminality of W's regime.

Sad days for democracy.

Congress protects people like Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld from being accountable to the American people. An interesting possible solution that seeks to restore accountability through a fundamental change is at change-congress.org, about what can be done to change how Congress does the People's business.

None of this surprises me, Will. As I assume it doesn't surprise you. I didn't see any particular hunger in any of the Democratic candidates to see justice done in this regard and I'm sorry to say I wasn't wrong in my assessment. It's politics as usual. The only way to wake this country from its long nightmare is to drag the dirty laundry out to air in the light of day--but that would require too many of "our" people to suffer a similar fate to those directly responsible.

Collusion is right. At this rate the American people will elect another Republican to the highest office before the blood is dry on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan. Just as I said would happen. It's in their interest that we forget. So we will.

The problem is the Brits are not going any further than this inquiry. No action is to be taken. Though it's a toothless exercise at least we'll know more about what happened even if Blair justified it all.

I've said it before. I'll say it again. Obama is clearing these two criminals because much of what he is doing in secret, today, regarding continued TORTURE and EXTRAORDINARY RENDITIONS and OVERSEAS PRISONS, is dependent on the established, accepted and non-revoked content of those hideous memos, which were authored by Yoo, Bybee, and Gonzales. It's quite simple, my friends. Outrageously simple, and just as egregious. Have you seen the movie SHOOTER? Please see it. That's what is needed at this point. Nothing less. Peace.

Look, I am every bit as disgusted by the actions of George Bush and his entire staff as anyone is. But lets be serious here. He is the former president of the United States. They are all former White House staffers. As much as we all hate their guts, do we honestly want to have to go down this road? They are not the first ones to commit such offenses while sitting in the office, make no mistake. But even with that in mind, there is absolutely no precedent within the United States for arresting and prosecuting a former president and his staff. And if you guys are all sick of how partisan and full of venom politics in this country have become, just imagine what they would be like in such a situation!
And forgive me for pointing out, but while so many want to see Dubya and his staff thrown into jail, if we have anyone to blame for their crimes, we need only look in a mirror. It was the American people who put these men into the positions of power they held. If they were so horrible, why weren't they simply voted out in 04?

BuSh-------> A Name or an Abbreviation..? You Decide..!!

Hello, PseudoPhred, I'll give you a virtual sledgehammer to swing - secession. Put your energy into your local secession movement. The first state that secedes will start to unravel that old worn-out sweater still erroneously known as the United States of America. Pete Edler, Stockholm.

I could not agree more with most of the comments on this article. One contributor was right: the UK Chilcot Inquiry on Iraq has stated that they are not going to apportion guilt but at least we now know more about what happened even if Blair was lying (as usual).

Two questions: Q1. Was it the American people who put George W into office? I thought something fishy went on in Florida in 200.

Q2. Is it any good writing to Obama at The White House when anything really important can be filtered and trashed by Emanuel, particularly if it is a criticism of Israel, another shameful side of US foreign policy.

Anyone who is any doubt about who the terrorists are in Israel/Palestine should read "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine" by Ilan Pappe, an Israeli historian. This book shows graphically - and all authenticated - that the Zionists in 1948 and later were no better than the Nazis.

Anon 04:52, the answer is Yes- not only do we want to go down this road, we need to go down this road or we completely lose any semblance of justice and legality for this country. Yes it has happened in the past and was "overlooked" but nothing in the past ever matched the scale and hubris of the acts of Bush II, and if we fail to prosecute, EVERY president from here to the end of the US will have carte blanche to make the law as they see fit, and we will have one version of 'justice' for the common man and a vastly different version for the elite. Already we have the new President ignoring the law as he sees fit, happily pursuing the same foreign policy and the same torture and murder that his predecessor did, the same war crimes. America has lost its justice, and it's freedom, and the only path to recovering it requires the prosecution of those responsible. As things stand at this moment, the President is bound by no law and can do as he pleases to whom he pleases, as can the Congress, and that is tyranny. We have devolved to the point that we're no different from any 3rd world banana republic.
The prosecution of these people and their being held accountable for the atrocities they committed is the ONLY way we stand a chance of forestalling a very bleak, dark future for this country.

'escape any accounting whatsoever for the massive battery of criminal
activity committed during their time in office'

Um, excuse me? When did the trial take place whereby these people were found guilty of the alleged 'criminal activity' mentioned in this article? Whether these alleged criminal activities took place or not, it is grossly improper to make such a statement in America
without injecting the word 'alleged'. Such flagrant statements also completely nullify the significance of truthout.org.

If Dick/Bush were held accountable for their crimes against humanity, then other leaders would think twice when they conduct "political" activity (lies, high crimes and misdemeanors). Do you think anyone in position of power want such a thing? They lie, we pay and grin with silly demeanors or clinching fists and teeth... We just PAY... I do not see any way around it. Welcome to the world of Sisyphus .

I am of the opinion that throughout all the evidence so far and obvious unanswered questions that America as a society is a victim of it's own apathy and ignorance.
Bush and his war crime buddies know that.
In Australia we say " They have got you by the balls !"
And while you are lied to your faces the American population is too scared to fight for the truth.
Is it easier to send another troop to a war?
Congratulations - now the rest of the world has to cover your asses.
Thanks a lot.

Amen. A travesty. It's puzzling why Obama chooses not to unleash the DOJ on these miscreants. When crime is allowed to go unpunished at the top, it will run wild at the bottom. But then that seems to be a great American tradition.

Specific things to do?
The British left India not because of non-violence, but because boycotts and independent living (making their own clothes, salt, etc.) made the country unmanageable. You will always have more power as a consumer than a voter.
Don't like John Yoo, etc.? Boycott UCal and now Chapman University, etc.
Effective (secondary) boycotting and strikes are so powerful, they're largely against the law in the U.S. thanks to Taft Hartley (passed by Congress overriding Truman's veto) and the Sherman Anti-trust Act. They are thus nearly impossible to organize. Of course effective boycotting requires the will of the people, and I think we often delude ourselves here that we represent or express that will.

If anyone was listening to the campaign, Obama on many occasion stated he did not want to pursue the past and wanted to create a new bipartisanship. At the time I was afraid he was telling the truth and he was. While he has gone back on many campaign promises, this unfortunately is the one he decides to keep. Would Hillary be different? Bidden?

The congress and senate are PACKED with criminals from both parties, the supreme court is tipped with bribe takers, the DOJ is virtually dismantled.
NOTHING will be done and no justice persued until WE elect a congress that is worthy.
Vote OUT your lying pigs in the primaries if you can, ignore party lines, look for honest candidates.
Blaming Obama at this point in time is totally ignorant.

Perhap, Mr. Pitt, now that we are approaching 5,000 dead soldiers you'll reconsider my request for you to become the speaker for the dead?

Instead of memorials on TV with a moment of silence we need to look into the background of each of these heroes who have given their lives for an illegal war.

Bringing the people, the individual, who have given this great gift to America can only serve notice to the American people that they are the government, they are the backbone of the financial health of the country, and they are also the heart of the country.

Five thousand lives lost to one illegal and two ill-conceived wars and yet on go the wars, with only direct family members knowing anything about the lives of those who died and lost their hopes and dreams because they believed in an America which doesn't exist. Which hasn't existed from the time that this government got the idea it could spy on its people (way before Bush43), test drugs and chemical defoliants on its citizens without their knowledge. A government who could allow moving heroin to support the war in Vietnam, and cocaine to support the Contras.

So you see, Mr. Pitt, if there is actually any time in our history that we need a speaker for the dead, now is the time.

I'd like to ask everyone who reads this to compile a list of young men and women who have sacrificed their lives or well being in the name of this country, and lets get cracking on bringing these people to the notice of the rest of America.

For surely they didn't sacrifice their lives for what our country has become.

Roger W. Norman
Roger@SirMusicStudio.com

It is empowering to read such comments, to know that I am not alone in wanting to see justice. I have done plenty of unbiased research to see how corrupt our government is and has been. Now what do we do? We all know what ultimately needs to be done, but how do we get there? I feel stuck and frustrated, not knowing what on Earth I could do. Although I am willing to do whatever it takes to bring out the truth and bring back the concept of freedom to not only our country, but to the whole world. We control everything, therefore we need to fix the problems here. Protesting, petitions, whatever it may be, I am ready to do, but how?