Keith Olbermann isn't happy that Democrats refuse to impeach Bush, so he asked former counterterrorism adviser Richard Clarke if there was "some other kind of remedy?"

There may be some sort of truth and reconciliation commission process that’s been tried in other countries, South Africa, Salvador and what not, where if you come forward and admit that you were in error or admit that you lied, admit that you did something, then you’re forgiven. Otherwise, you are censured in some way. Now, I just don’t think we can let these people back into polite society and give them jobs on university boards and corporate boards and just let them pretend that nothing ever happened when there are 4,000 Americans dead and 25,000 Americans grieviously wounded, and they’ll carry those wounds and suffer all the rest of their lives. Someone should have to pay in some way for the decisions that they made to mislead the American people.

The reason the conflicts in South Africa and El Salvador ended with "truth and reconciliation commissions" is that those conflicts turned into civil wars in which large portions of the country participated. That made it physically impossible to throw all the antagonists in jail.

But the Iraq War is a completely different situation. The decision to invade Iraq was made by two people - George Bush and Dick Cheney. (Even Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld insists they never asked his advice, and Colin Powell was privately opposed.) Bush and Cheney relied on a few dozen "architects," some in the administration and some on the outside. Beyond that, a few dozen more cheerleaders in the Corporate Media and in think tanks volunteered their minds and souls.

In a nation that locks away 1 million prisoners, there is plenty of room for Bush, Cheney, the architects, and the cheerleaders. Certainly the Corporate Media and the Republican Party would scream if they were prosecuted, but the country wouldn't care. I don't recall any riots when Scooter Libby went on trial or when Judy Miller was locked away for contempt.

So if there is no accountability through impeachment, there must be accountability for war crimes. And there's no reason to wait, now that Scott McClellan has volunteered to testify. There are plenty of other witnesses who will testify out of remorse (like McClellan) or to avoid taking the fall for those above them who issued the orders.

Update 1: Valerie Plame's husband has some better ideas:

Ambassador Wilson, sporting a new buzz cut that made him appear more ex-military than ex-State Department, wasted no time in laying out various suggestions that ranged all the way from trials for treason to interesting ideas on jump-starting war crimes tribunals abroad to obstruction of justice charges for Bushco in the wake of the Scooter Libby pardon--and those are just a few.  And that's what clammyc and I will be speaking with the Ambassador about in today's BlogTalkRadio interview.

Update 2: I'm glad to see Michael Hirsh calling NY Times columnist Tom Friedman a war criminal:

example number one has got to be Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, who embraced what he called "a war of choice," which, you know, in my view is just the euphemism for a war crime. And he's never been held accountable for it.  

Atrios wants to put war crimes advocates like Friedman on trial, but war cheerleaders are way down the list of those who need to be held accountable. How soon can we start a war crimes trial for The Deciders?

Update 3: I'd like to see progressive bloggers take a stand now - long before the November election - on whether they support war crimes trials. Our hero Digby is the first to say yes, and Howie Klein is right behind.