If you don’t recognize the title of this post, it is a quote by President Nixon from his interview with David Frost. I was reminded of it by an article in The Guardian UK. If you haven’t read it, I encourage you to.

Think Nixon was the only one who believes that?

Note this breathtaking exchange [between Vice President Dick Cheney and] Fox News at the weekend. He was asked: “If the president during war decides to do something to protect the country, is it legal?” Cheney’s answer: “General proposition, I’d say yes.”

If you would like to know more …

here is another editorial by the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/18/opinion/18thu1.html

And here is the abbreviated Senate Armed Services Committee Report:
http://levin.senate.gov/newsroom/supporting/2008/
Detainees.121108.pdf

I’ll quote from that Senate Report:

On February 7, 2002, President George W. Bush made a written determination that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, which would have afforded minimum standards for humane treatment, did not apply to al Qaeda or Taliban detainees. Following the President’s determination, techniques such as waterboarding, nudity, and stress positions, used in SERE training to simulate tactics used by enemies that refuse to follow the Geneva Conventions, were authorized for use in interrogations of detainees in U.S. custody.

In other words, we get to ignore the Geneva Conventions when we want to.

I wonder if President Bush will pardon both his buddies and also himself as he leaves office.