In the historian's opinion, the contradiction in Obama's statement and its implications are obviously grave. The US president in fact appears to be thinking that the law does not apply to all.
"Perhaps when Barack Obama, just nine days before becoming president, said [that] … he might have been anticipating his perpetrating as president similar crimes as Bush had (such as Obama has, in fact, done in Libya, Syria, etc.) and anticipated his lying about it, in his own presidency – his being actually a GWB II," the analyst asserted.
The fact that nobody has been punished baffles the historian, who laments that the lack of responsibility for inflicting pain and suffering is affecting democracy in the United States.
"America's failure to prosecute George W. Bush and Dick Cheney for the invasion of Iraq is the most stunning evasion of basic democratic accountability," Zuesse noted. "Once his presidency has ended, there is no excuse for George W. Bush's still not having had to face trial on this and many other serious charges concerning his presidency," he added, referring to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Zuesse believes that democracy can only survive if everyone is accountable and no lie is left unanswered. Otherwise, a country turns into a "dictatorship by and on behalf of liars, who thereby become the nation's aristocracy."
