By Jim Cook

From Irregular Times | Original Article

World Can’t Wait has created a clever database called War Criminals Watch that discloses the times and places where the war criminals of the previous Bush administration will be appearing in public events. It is only just that these Bush administration officials, who ripped away Americans’ privacy and presumption of innocence while demanding secrecy and unaccountability for themselves, be geolocated so that protesters may assemble nearby to remind Americans what the likes of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Jay Bybee, Karl Rove, John Yoo, Donald Rumsfeld, John Bolton and Michael Mukasey did to undermine democracy, freedom, human rights and the rule of law.

When you click through to the War Criminals Watch website, however, a video will automatically begin to play that exposes a blind spot in the project. You’ll hear the testimony of a signatory to the Crimes are Crimes No Matter Who Does Them statement, someone like Joyce Kozloff:

My name is Joyce Kozloff. I’m an artist. When I received the statement and read it, I completely agreed with it. I just reread it this morning and I still agree with it. I don’t know why there’s been so little criticism of Obama from the left. I think that so many people had such high hopes for him and so many people worked so hard to get him elected, and it’s been very disappointing. These wars continue and there’s very little activity in the peace movement since Obama was elected. Partly people are burned out and depressed and disappointed, and partly I think a lot of people feel that we can’t get any better than Obama and if there is a great deal of opposition we might get someone even worse. So he’s kind of had a free ride.

I’m particularly upset about the drone attacks, the ongoing drone attacks, and about aerial war in general, and the massive loss of civilian life. It doesn’t seem to be ending; quite the contrary, it seems to be escalating. I wish there were more opposition.

I wish there were more opposition, too. As of today, nearly a year after the Crimes are Crimes campaign began, only 2,770 people across the country have signed the statement along with Kozloff. Kozloff is right: something is wrong on the left.

I laud the creation of the War Criminals Watch database. I urge World Can’t Wait to include the appearances of relevant Obama administration officials on this list as well, because World Can’t Wait is right: crimes are crimes, no matter who commits them.