It’s not a rhetorical question.

I’m sure virtually all Americans would say “Of course!” they believe in justice.  It’s a cornerstone of our democracy.  It’s a fundamental tenet of our relationships—personal, professional, economic, societal, ethical.  Moreover, I would venture that most Americans believe that justice is a universal value: that over time, justice prevails.  Or, as Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., said, “The arc of the universe may be long, but it bends toward justice.”

So, believing in justice, one has to be concerned about the future of the United States.  Justice may be blind, but she keeps accurate accounts.  She records that a people that destroys another country under false pretenses–say, Iraq–owes a debt to justice.  We add to the debt when we destroy what is left of Afghanistan.  When GIs and military contractors kill and rape and pillage civilians.  When we incarcerate hundreds of innocents—uncharged and unprosecuted—at Guantanamo.  When we send drones to destroy wedding parties.  When GIs piss on corpses, laughing.  Or take trophy photos with corpses they then post to porn sites. 

Or perhaps Justice is most disturbed by the American people’s careless disregard—our unconcern—about these historical facts.  Perhaps she is most dismayed by our ability to continue shopping, consuming, recreating, while atrocities are committed in our name–and too often at our insistence.  Perhaps she wonders at our unexamined faith that our wars are just. That we’re heroes, if you can stomach it, when the record shows that we condone savagery.  Indeed, we initiate it.

For documentation, please see http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175491/tomgram%3A_chase_madar%2C_accusing_wikileaks_of_murder/#more.