Do you think any members of the Bush administration will face criminal charges?

[HoreTore]

A nice and simple poll...

Do you think that any important members of the Bush administration will face criminal charges in the next few years for their actions during his presidency? Note; this isn't about whether they're guilty, just whether they will be brought to a trial...

Either abroad or at home, for war crimes, corruption, etc.

- no
- yes, but only minor and irrelevant charges
- yes, on corruption charges
- yes, for other economic crimes
- yes, for war-crimes, but not in US courts
- yes, for war-crimes, in US courts

[drone]

Seeing as how they are still being sworn to secrecy, it will be a long time before the real story of the shenanigans comes out. If Congress/Obama do initiate an investigation, my guess is that some may get contempt charges. I seriously doubt that any of them will face a US court though, too many people on both sides would be embarrassed.

A foreign court may charge some of them, but they will never come to trial.

[Strike For The South]

Warcrimes in an international court? Whoever voted that is dreaming.

[Ronin]

they absolutely should be tried for war crimes...ain´t gonna happen though.

[Strike For The South]

Neither Johnson nor Westmoreland stood for 'Nam, which had 14 times the US casualties and many more times the civilian casualties. Not to mention an American public out for blood and one that found an identity in the war. Today we seem to want to keep the war from sight and sound.

Everyone walks.

[Tribesman]

Everyone walks.

tell that to Kissinger , he had to run from Paris and couldn't set foot in Brazil .
So will any of the Bush idiots face trial ? It depends on how much they like to travel .

[Fisherking]

Politician in office don’t like to send Politicians out of office to Jail…any way you choose spell it.

Some day they will be out of office and they don’t want to spend the money they acquired on other lawyers…

[Lemur]

As I said in another thread, I think people such as John Yoo and David Addington should avoid European vacations for the foreseeable future.

[Strike For The South]

tell that to Kissinger , he had to run from Paris and couldn't set foot in Brazil .
So will any of the Bush idiots face trial ? It depends on how much they like to travel .

Paris? A dog and pony show, so that the French could save face after some nationals had been killed. No teeth at all.

As for Brazil. Who really cares. I'm sure Syria, Jordan and other Arab nations will pull the same stunt. More to show that they don't like Bush messing around in there backyard.

[CountArach]

No, of course not. There's no justice in this world.

[Strike For The South]

No, of course not. There's no justice in this world.

[Kralizec]

I don't think any cabinet members will face charges in the USA, though I imagine some of the lower appointees might- but not for anything other than falsifying/witholding documents or similar stuff, certainly not "war crimes". Some of them might have to avoid a couple of countries in the future to avoid trials there (look at Pinochet, for example)

[King Jan III Sobieski]

Don't succeeding presidents always pardon members of the previous administration as a good faith measure?

[Major Robert Dump]

Politicians have a knack for looking out for each other, so I voted no. Bush didn't pursue Clinton, Obama won't pursue Bush.

[Xiahou]

Politicians have a knack for looking out for each other, so I voted no. Bush didn't pursue Clinton, Obama won't pursue Bush.

Agreed. No administration wants to be the one to set that precedent.

[Hosakawa Tito]

The only court any will face is the court of public opinion. I agree with Major Dump *welcome back by the way* and Xiahou. No administration wants to weaken the implied concept of executive privilege , not to mention the protracted legal battle that would probably take a decade to fight.

[rory_20_uk]

Politicians have a knack for looking out for each other, so I voted no. Bush didn't pursue Clinton, Obama won't pursue Bush.

There's no gain for taking the old guard to the courts when you can just heap all blame on them with impunity anyway. And every politician is aware that they want to retire without the threat of being caught out for all the waste, kickbacks and bribes they've taken over the years.

[LittleGrizzly]

Not nessecarily speaking of charges against the Bush admin here... but i think it would be great if the next administration (hypothetically speaking) were willing to charge the previous will any illegal crap they got up to, this would force the administration that carried such an action out to be whiter than white and probably every administration afterwards would have the worry that they could be charged....

The current policy seems something like asking the new drug dealer if he wants the old one he replaced to goto jail...

[CountArach]

It's been a while since I posted any polling information on this site (Seriously, it must have at least been a fortnight). So when this hit my Email inbox today I thought it might be interesting to some.

62% of americans want at least some inquiry into Bush's wrongdoings.

Surprisingly this isn't built along partisan lines (though there is a clear divide there, but it is not some of the 90% of Republicans oppose/90% of Democrats support stuff that we are used to reading).