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Entry: The Smoking Gun Link: http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/the_smoking_gun#4895 Post contents: Mr Foy, thanks for your courteous response. To clarify, I agree with you on investigating and prosecuting the people responsible for this illegal war. What I disagree with is the aspiration to get to the "bottom" of it all, and even more alarmingly your reference to "motivations", because in the English legal tradtion which America has inherited, "motivations" are irrelevant in all criminal prosecutions. Furthermore, an obsession with "motivations" was typical of Stalin's Russia and Mao's China - the belief that we should (and the even more irrational belief that we are ABLE to) "discover" the "hidden motivations" of criminals or of enemies of the state. Intentions (which are not the same thing as motivations) must be deduced from acts, but personal motives are known only by God, and are irrelevant in any prosecution in our legal system. And you wrote: "In this instance, we know who the front-men are" ...yes we do, and under American law, that's all we need to know. If there were any people "behind" them, then, willy nilly, those people are not responsible under the law. They might be evil bastards, but under the law they're not responsible for this war. "The question is, what was going on behind the scenes to motivate the front-men?" No, under the law that is NOT the question! And I reiterate, an obsession with "motivations", "behind the scenes" is more typical of Stalin or of Robespierre than of George Washington's republic. That said, Mr Foy, I do admire you for your good work in continuing to keep this scandal in the public eye and to call for impeachment and prosecution. But my reservation concerns the fact that investigations of political "conspiracy" lend themselves all too easily to the opportunistic ambitions of witch-hunters of the McCarthy/Stalin/Robespierre types. Sent at: 2008 12 02