True to his prosecutorial roots, Vincent Bugliosi gave a concise summation on Thursday of his case against George W. Bush. Bush, says Bugliosi in his new book, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder, is responsible for the death of each US soldier killed in Iraq because he lied to Congress and the nation to sell the invasion.

There is no doubt, among people with the capacity for doubt, that the administration and the president repeatedly lied about Iraq’s intentions and capabilities. Even a good half of Republicans now concede the point. Bugliosi thinks the record is clear enough to make for a open-and-shut case against Bush if any prosecutor at the state or local level can be persuaded to file the charges once Bush is out of office.

Despite Bugliosi’s exhaustive documentation of the endless Bush administration lies about the necessity of an invasion, and despite the near universal agreement among sentient beings — a class that includes at least some journalists — that, yes, Bush did indeed lie and that, yes, people did indeed die, and continue to die, in direct consequence of the lies, Bugliosi cannot get his book reviewed in a major newspaper, cannot get a slot on a major network or cable talk show, and in fact can’t even buy an ad spot on the Don Imus show.

Which is to say that most people know he’s right, but refuse to talk about it. It’s about the most bizarre imaginable example of an entire industry, if one conflates the news and entertainment sectors, which one may as fucking well do, simply refusing to talk about the enormous turd the president has laid, and continues to add to, in their living rooms.

It’s no longer especially entertaining to play “Imagine if it were a Democrat,” but hey: Imagine if Bugliosi’s book were aimed at a Democrat — something Bugliosi says he’d do if the facts supported it — the way numerous books, using either zero or concocted evidence, portrayed Bill and Hillary Clinton as murderers and John Kerry as a combat coward and fraud; its author would be reviewed in every newspaper with a book critic, and featured on every talk show with a pulse.

But no: the book is a best seller, the author has written three previous best sellers in the same genre, beginning with the account of his prosecution of the Charles Manson murders, he is a three-time Edgar Award winner in the non-fiction category, he’s got an explosive premise that is pretty much guaranteed to generate readership, viewers and endless comment, and he can’t get so much as a whisper of acknowledgement from most of the press.

Bugliosi thinks the boycott reflects the media’s fear of the political right; there may be something to that, but I think it’s more a reluctance to go swimming in a pool filled with blood that the press helped spill, and that the notion of a president in the dock for murder is simply too heavy, in multiple senses, to wrap one’s head, or camera, or word processor around. It’s scary, and it promises to breach the dam: if Bush can go down, who can’t?

Bugliosi temporized a bit when asked by an audience member in the Santa Monica library auditorium what the chances are of a prosecution actually going forward. The characterization at which he arrived after a few moments of thought is that the chance is less than great but better than none, primarily because under his straightforward legal theory, every prosecutor who holds office in any jurisdiction called home by any US soldier killed in Iraq has standing to bring charges against Mr. Bush. By Bugliosi’s count, that’s more than 2,700 state and local prosecutors, and getting one of them to run with the prosecution should be easier than, say, getting Nancy Pelosi off her corrupt butt and out of the way of impeachment.

Of course the fly in the ointment is a pardon, either by Bush of himself, or by a newly elected president McCain or Obama (and yes, that’s a prediction: either will pardon Bush). Bugliosi thinks pardons apply only to federal crimes, and gives a lucid explanation of why, but even if he’s right the matter would ultimately be decided by a Supreme Court that is only marginally sane.

All of which is to say that we’re unlikely to ever see George W. Bush in a US dock, let alone on the gallows. On the other hand, he and his slimy cohort can’t be pardoned for violating international laws, and it’s quite likely that charges will be brought within the next five years against one or more of the crew by one or more signatories to the Geneva Conventions and other international pacts requiring member nations to act against violators wherever they are to be found.

That won’t put any of the gangsters on the gallows either, since civilized countries have long since banned the death penalty. It may not even put them in the dock; it’s doubtful that any US government we’re likely to see during the next decade would extradite a former president or even former presidential minions. Indictments from abroad could, however, put a serious crimp in any travel plans the thugs might have. Not that that would bother Bush except in the abstract, but there’s some potential satisfaction in the thought.

Buy the book. It may never come to pass, but it’s an astute and elegant validation of everything you’ve been thinking about the criminality and culpability of George Bush and his associates.

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