Paul Craig Roberts: The True Cost Of The War

09-03-2010 • Rense.com

Saddam Hussein would have resigned for far less money had it been offered to him. Do Americans see the irony in the "saving Iraq from tyranny" excuse? The greatest price of the neoconservative war against Iraq is not the $3 trillion or the dead and maimed American soldiers and their broken families. The greatest price of this evil war is the destruction of the U.S. Constitution and American civil liberties. The Bush/Cheney/Obama National Security State has eviscerated the Constitution and civil liberty. Nothing remains. The fascist Republican Federalist Society has put enough federal judges in the judiciary to rule that the president is above the law. The president doesn't have to obey the law against spying on American citizens without warrants. The president doesn't have to obey U.S. and international laws against torture. The president doesn't have to obey the Constitution that mandates that only Congress can declare war. The president can do whatever he wants as long as he justifies it as "national security." The president's part of the government, the unaccountable executive branch, is supreme. The president can announce, without being impeached, his decision to murder Americans abroad and at home if someone somewhere in the unaccountable executive branch regards such American citizens as "threats." Murder first. No accountability later.