Rum on the Rocks... Again?

It's no big secret that Don Rumsfeld (to say nothing of the rest of the Bushies) is guilty of heinous war crimes. As the US Secretary of Defense, however, he was protected. Protected by Bush's doctrines that protect Americans from trial in the Hague (a doctrine sure to be overturned in a future Democratic presidency with the support of a sympathetic House and Senate), the Bushies have worked with impunity spreading fear and extracting misinformation from captive prisoners, lying if only to make the torture stop.

At this point, even John McCain is on board with this policy. Finally though, a ray of hope shines through the darkness this week as Rummy has resigned his post as Secretary of Defense after orchestrating what may become known as the worst military campaign in US history. Immediately following that resignation, former 'detainees' in Iraq's Abu Ghraib and Cuba's Guantanamo prisons have brought a suit into a German court seeking an investigation and possible criminal prosecution against Rummy, as well as subordinates believed to support this policy.

According to the former prisoners' lawyer, the point is not to get Rumsfeld to stand up and defend himself or face consequences, but instead to show that there will be no safe haven for him. In a greater ramification, this trial could easily be a referendum on the entire war on terror and its leaders, and set new ground rules for treatment of any kind of prisoner of war without allowing leaders to break those rules with impunity.