But perhaps the real (war 'and other miscellaneous matters') criminals are not these aforementioned, including said global 'actors' claiming special *papal/religious dispensation, if not outright diplomatic immunity, for their past crimes and disreputable conduct.
*And may I suggest here that not all the (current) pontiff's 'tears', pleadings, and corporately-invoked self-flagellations - however welcome and appropriate and justifiable and even downright commendable - and/or all said Church's amends and penance, whether merely milked for public consumption or actually motivated by heartfelt repentance and true sorrow and contrition for sin, will ever make things right ever again. (Much like Pope John Paul the First's much-publicized 'apology' for the Roman Catholic Church's Dark Ages' abominations (such as the Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the St Bartholemew Massacre et al), all historically well-documented if nowadays conveniently omitted from social studies and history textbooks.) I'm referring of course to the legions in their ranks whose lives and hopes have been effectively destroyed and dashed by the glossing over and covering up of heinous evil...the ignoring, sidestepping and wilful ignorance of years, decades, yea - were the real truth made known - doubtless literally centuries, even perhaps (one-and-a-half to two) millennia, of such crimes against humanity.
But onto the real substance of this posting:
No, methinks, vis-a-vis the ofttimes and usually justifiably criticized and moreover roundly condemned recent ex-President of the U S of A, whose much-vaunted 'War on Terror' effectively only 'upped the ante', metaphorically placing into the hands, and, more's to the point, thoughts and minds of each and every last would-be jihadist, terrorist and supposed 'freedom fighter' - this world supposedly has ever known - sufficient excuse, reason, justification and rationale (yea, all of these 'with knobs on'), for 'taking out' as much 'collateral damage' upon Bush Junior's (and Vice-President Dick Cheney's) own, supposedly condoning, nation and society - 'till kingdom come', and well beyond... .
Anyway, in relation to said ex-President Bush - the second - just as if not indeed even more reprehensibly, though seldom suggested except by the likes of the much-maligned investigative reporter/journalist John Pilger, is or rather was the record in office of George W Bush's father, the first George Bush presidency America was subjected to (from 1988 through 1992). Perhaps like me, into your own cranium, is seared for all time the first ever, live, 24-hour TV war, Desert Storm, against Iraq, or, more precisely, challenging the then Iraqi incursion into and attempted annexation of Kuwait. Well, be that as it very well may, it just so happens to set a rather appropriate setting for why I, like Pilger, view Bush Senior's conduct as so deplorable, or even criminal.
Though now - very recently - feted as 'a bit of a (real) lad' for his sky-diving antics ("down thar in Texas with all ma clan", George Junior et al), and indeed internationally (admittedly, including by Yours Truly), as President, for presiding over the justly-celebrated demise/breakup/disintegration and destruction of the former Soviet Union, alongside its string of satellite states, which perhaps like myself you recall 'falling' like dominoes with exponentially-increasing velocity: from Poland's years, to the next nation's months, to the following one's weeks, to the next one's days, to another's mere hours (well, you get the picture).
Anyhow, laying aside the fact, however unpleasant to some and loath they may be to admit it, that the epoch-changing revolution commonly known as 'the fall of the iron curtain' can much more justly be sheeted home to Bush Senior's predecessor ***Ronald Reagan, methinks said President Bush himself has a very serious charge or two to answer, yes, were it possible, at the International Court of Justice, though one day assuredly at the Universal Bar of Divine Justice and Judgment.
***Who, as American President in strategic alignment with Pope Francis'
and Pope Benedict's own acclaimed (and decried) predecessor John
Paul ****the Second - as well as, of course, the then Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev - didn't only preside over but played a decisive role in said epoch-making and altering events.
****Wonder what ever became of Pope John Paul the First? Hey, silly me, there's an entire book devoted to the subject, isn't there, In God's Name by David Yallop, I believe.
The charge being? Just this: not only the then President's elaborate and all too technically dextrous attempt to extricate himself from the fallout of the first Iraq War (which I will shortly detail), but, just as significantly - and awfully for all concerned - his complicity in, nay apparent authorization of, dreadful war crimes therein. To wit, the massacre of some 200,000 surrendering troops of then Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
Despite a specific, indeed virtually unanimous(ly carried), United Nations' mandate and thus apparent near-global sanction even, for the American attack upon Hussein's army in Kuwait - to free the Kuwaitis anyhow - Bush later constructed an all too convenient and ingenious argument, cited in Time Magazine, to attempt to excuse the subsequent immediate U.S. force withdrawal, or more particularly their failure to 'take out', i.e. assassinate, the brutal, bloodthirsty Iraqi dictator himself. It being against international law and all that sort of thing to specifically kill the leader of a nation. Hey, perhaps Bush Senior was thinking of his own back? Though evidently it was (and is) quite kosher to dispose of hundreds of thousands of its' people, even when they no longer posed any kind of threat (either internationally or regionally) whatsoever. And thus to - if only by default, but don't you tell me Bush Senior wouldn't have been only too well aware of the potential, even probable consequences of so doing - effectively be complicit in Saddam Hussein's subsequent butchering of the Kurdish population of Iraq, using internationally-outlawed chemical weapons to do so. Yes sirree, the late Saddam Hussein did indeed once not only possess but fully and mercilessly utilize said 'weapons of mass destruction'; that he verily did do.
And so effectively making himself - by his cowardice at a time of great moment when all the world stood behind him as it were - more than somewhat responsible for all the atrocities that followed for Iraqi citizens throughout the decade-plus remainder of the departed tyrant's reign of terror. (The death total of Iraqis exterminated by his regime apparently numbering over one million by all accounts.)
So may all the world's present-day remaining war criminals please come forward - no, not to be honoured and awarded for your callous and coldly calculated inhumanities, but to plead your case before a world of war-weary peoples and citizenry. I dare you to - though somehow I suspect I'm wasting my breath. Perhaps if 'y'all' did so now - voluntarily, before push comes to shove - the eternal verdict later might perhaps stand you in rather better stead. But since true repentance ever involves a whole lot more than fancy footwork, public relations spin, media-condoned 'porkies' and poll-driven hype, methinks we'll all be waiting awhile yet... . Still, I've no doubt whatsoever Who'll eventually have the very last word. And I'm so sorry to have to be the one to break to you the news that after His oh-so-just deliberations and ultimate everlasting Judgment, there will not be any further appeals possible. Probation will be over - for both time and eternity.
No, our Creator's verdict will stand for time and eternity, and the outcome for all who fall foul of that decision will evidently be not too pretty. Hey folk, I didn't write the script. The Lamb of God slain from the very foundation of this world did, but some day - very, very soon in fact - He's returning to this old world, in great glory...no longer meek and mild, but the All-Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah, ready to execute Vengeance upon all who've acted unjustly, yes, however 'religious' they may have once claimed to be...
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