Antiwar.com Blog

Seeing the rave reviews on how Iraqis will benefit from the hanging of Saddam Hussein, and hearing the late Gerald Ford lauded today to the heavens, I can’t help wondering how American history might have changed if Richard Nixon had been hanged.

Of course, I’m not suggesting  Nixon should have been hanged by a lynch mob.  And it is possible that Nixon could have been given a Saddam-like trial (judged fair enough by the Washington Post and most of the American establishment) and somehow avoided stretching before a crowd.

Nixon was guilty of illegally invading a foreign country (Cambodia), of perpetuating the war in Vietnam for political purposes and his 1972 reelection campaign, of violating the rights of tens of thousands of Americans with the illegal FBI COINTELPRO program, of sanctioning CIA violence and subversion around the globe, as well as Watergate and many other offenses.

Nixon also created Amtrak.

Many people assume that President Ford pardoned Nixon only for Watergate.  Instead, Ford pardoned Nixon for any and every crime Nixon committed from January 20, 1969 (the date he was sworn in) until the day he resigned in August 1974.    Ford’s pardon effectively closed the book on holding Nixon culpable for his crimes against the Constitution, Americans, and millions of other people around the world.

If Nixon had been publicly tried and a full accounting of his abuses made to the American public, it may have been far more difficult for subsequent presidents to cover up their crimes.  If politicians had vivid memories of Nixon swinging on a rope, they might have been slower to lie the nation into unnecessary foreign wars.    If Ford was hellbent on pardoning his friend, he should have had the decency to wait until the evidence was on the table.  

Some people would say that it would have been unfair to make Nixon pay the price for his lies and crimes when other presidents (such as Lyndon Johnson) got away with similar abuses and mass killings.

True enough, but it is necessary to start somewhere.

And those who are concerned about how Nixon would have personally suffered from being hanged are cold-hearted towards the tens of thousands of Americans who have been killed and maimed in subsequent unnecessary wars.  Making one politician pay the price of his conduct could have saved Americans and the world vast suffering.

Comments on this topic are welcome at my blog here.

 

According to the web site Icasualties.org, the number of U.S. servicemember casualties in Iraq has reached the 3,000 mark. The web site, which tracks American deaths in both Iraq and Afghanistan, reported the latest casualty this afternoon. He was Spc. Dustin R. Donica, 22, of Spring, Texas and died of small arms fire in Baghdad on December 28th. The death takes the monthly total to 111 deaths. December was the third bloodiest month since the invasion and the deadliest of the year.

Long Live Live Leak. WARNING: GRAPHIC. This shows Saddam Hussein dropping through the hanging platform, and then a closeup of his face immediately after. You know you want to see it.

HBO: Rome: About the Show

Founded on principles of shared power and fierce personal competition, the Republic was created to prevent any one man from seizing absolute control. It is a society where soldiers can rise up from provincial commoners to become national heroes, even leaders of the Republic.

But as the ruling class became extravagantly wealthy, the foundations have crumbled, eaten away by corruption and excess, and the old values of Spartan discipline and social unity have given way to a great chasm between the classes.

Rome: Episode Guide: Summary: Season 1: Episode 10

“Let this be an end to division and civil strife.” After a unanimous vote in his favor, Caesar declares the war over and announces five days of feasts and games honoring his ‘triumph.’

For his first ceremony, the new emperor presides over the public execution of his former adversary, the King of Gauls, who has been kept alive–just barely–in the dungeons of the city. 

In the woods outside Rome, the body of the King of Gauls, rescued from a trash heap in the city, burns atop a bonfire. 

Triumph (episode of Rome)

Vercingetorix of the Gauls is depicted as being executed as part of the Triumph, although this does not seem to have been the practice. Such captives were held, or executed at the Tullianum, not in public as part of the ceremony. Also, had he been executed publicly, he would have been beheaded (or possibly have had his throat slit), not strangled. Stranglings were commonly used to dispose of people, but were done in the tullianum, as said above, not in public. It is generally assumed that Vercingetorix was executed by strangling in the prison after being featured in the triumph, though the possibility he may have been publicly executed at the Gemonian stairs is not completely excluded.

Chuck Hagel, one of the few sane Republicans left standing, will not run for President, according to this source. Heck, he’s not even going to run for reelection to his Senate seat.

While some neocons may hold up the Ethiopian invasion of Somalia as a “model” for American strategy in Iraq, the reality on the ground is proving them wrong (once again!):

Hundreds of Somalis flooded into bullet-pocked boulevards to hurl rocks at the Ethiopian soldiers, set tires on fire and shout anti-Ethiopian slogans.

“Get out of our country!” they yelled. “We hate you, Ethiopians!”

In northern Mogadishu, residents said men with scarves over their faces and assault rifles in their hands lurked on street corners. Mogadishu has plenty of gunmen, of every age and every clan, but gunmen hiding their identity is something new and may be a sign of a developing insurgency.

“We’re going to turn this place into another Iraq,” said Abdullahi Hashi, a construction worker who said he was part of a new underground movement to fight the Ethiopians.

“Tamdiu discendum est, quamdiu vivas.” — a maxim that does not apply to our neocons.

Question: How long before American soldiers — in the role of “advisors” — start appearing on the front lines of this new “war on terrorism”? Place your bets now ….