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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
if in return Obama must pardon anyone who can get to the ringleaders and water-board them for an afternoon or two. Fair trade I think. Oh right, kidnapping people and torturing them are reprehensible and horrible acts which no person deserving of any pardon would ever do.
Funny how water-boarding gets treated as a misspelling unless you separate the two words with a hyphen or space. I guess they really aren't supposed to go together.
I guess I am confused by the necessity for pardons. Ever since the revelations of "torture" surfaced, this administration has repeatedly spoken to us like adolescents that simply don't understand - the US doesn't torture, never has, never will. Water boarding, stress positions, endless sensory deprivation - all of these activities are well documented and the administration has both admitted that these tactics were/are used and repeatedly claimed that they are not torture, but "enhanced interrogation" techniques. They have been completely clear in their arguments - they have done absolutely nothing legally wrong, so they say. The Executive Branch is free from the legal scrutiny that we normal citizens must fear.
Their current lack of confidence that these morally repugnant arguments won't stand up to new legal scrutiny shows what the naysayers have known all along - the US has completely institutionalized torture, the amount of ongoing past and present torture is massive, and the cover for their activities ends in January.
Regardless of their current legal predicament, we have much bigger problems as a country. Our Constitutional system was not able to effectively drive the enforcement of laws over an entire branch of the government. As a Democratic President takes over the reins, policies will temporally change, but the shadow, defense-related government that actually drives much current US policy will not disappear until it is exposed and removed like a cancerous tumor. At the heart of the problem is the American ability to see and appreciate the many wonderful and unique strengths of our Constitutional system while simultaneously demonizing those with the temerity to point out its shortcomings. What does it say about our system that people are calling for a "Truth and Reconciliation Commission?" At the very least, it says that we have known for some time that our Executive Branch is breaking the law and our system was unable to make it stop.
To admit this truth is to be a true Patriot who desperately wants to see his/her beloved country return to its ideals.
There must needs be a way of preventing the return of these scoundrels. In addition, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is very appealing. Not only South Africa, but South Korea used the device to address the appalling actions of its leaders during the 1980s in particular. Torture was rife, citizens were repressed and jailed for dissent, and there was the infamous Kwangju massacres. During ex-President Noh's administration, the commission turned over all those rocks, including ex-dictators Roh and Chun especially, and from my viewpoint as something of an outsider, it was very effective. Full testimony and truth in exchange for no prosecution. But certainly complete disgrace and loss of any reputation. South Korea has a much more group-oriented, Confucian society, as opposed to our highly individualistic culture, so group opprobrium is much more effective there. Therefore we would need additional mechanisms to ensure that those disgraced individuals could not return to power, but beyond that, I think the commission idea would work well.
Not as retribution nor vengefulness; not as vindictive nor dishonor. Not as hate nor proof nor righteousness...Not from any other spirit, than that the American people need an explanation from Bush.
American's have walked around for eight years confused and frustrated. They have elected a new President now (Obama) out of demand for change in every aspect.
It is out of respect for the American People and to protect and uplift the office of the President once again, that the Bush administration and its Justice department that enabled wrong doings, that this administration be cleaned up by investigating.
It is not so much in the prosecution of all or some including the President, it is in so doing and revealing the wrong doings that they suffer humiliation and more important, the American people begin to heal...deeply injured and deeply in need to heal some wounds inflicted by this administration on the World.
Or, like a bad kid, undisciplined, he perpetrates his out of control, destructive behavior and scams his legacy in lies for history. He should not have that privilege...not have a good legacy for he wasn't a good president...not at all.
Americans must hail those wounds to help move us on, while we hail the election of our President Obama, for having the insight and desire to help us all heal who were at the effect of the George Bush Presidency...his negative effects globally as well.
It is time to move on, but also to put things straight, clean up the Bush shambles he leaves behind and to restore the image, respect, honor to the office once again, albeit to refresh our land.
George Bush has been an abomination and he should carry the baggage that he leaves behind that we hand him out the door to share our mire and despair due to his atrocities.
A shameful person is Bush in my view...shame is what he brought to my soul as an American. I would like an apology from him to me, to the American people...to the world really...for the chaos he leaves us, as his legacy. May it be published in books and may the humiliation he laid on us, be laid where it belongs and follow him through his remaining years.
Thank you. May God Bless President-Elect Obama as he helps build and renew our America.
impeach the bastards now. Obama should assemble a strike team in the house (kucinich to lead). Articles by tommorrow, trial and removal by next thursday. Throw all their crap out on the lawn on friday. These people are criminals.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
