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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Speaking of lessons learned, what about this:
http://letters.salon.com/news/feature/2008/09/09/mccain_bounce/permalink/175f58c8a9f2b9e17d0a0c28854a63de.html
"The greater one's physical or emotional proximity to the attacks, the greater is the danger that one will seek excessively to empower and submit to government authority and cheer for destructive counter-measures which allow few, if any, limits."-- Glenn Greenwald
I actually found it bizarre that the further away people were from the 9.11 attacks, the more eager and proud they were to want to eliminate civil liberties, empower Bush with dictatorial rule, and scrap both the Bill of Rights and the Constitution. While there were, undoubtedly people scared shitless in the NYC area, it was the people that Gov Palin considers "real Americans" (heartland, all-white, all-Christian) who became the most unhinged and cowardly - demographically speaking - post 9.11. The correlation between rank cowardice and supporting Bush & the GOP is hard to separate. And the areas that were attacked were, and remained, very much anti-Bush.
Would you mind fleshing out your concept of "extreme but temporary domestic security measures"? Disclosure: My initial reaction is, Jeezuz, WTF is this person talking about?
A fair point. I think that in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack, like 9/11, extreme domestic security measures may be taken temporarily to ensure that the immediate threat has been contained and that no other attack is imminent. For instance, I think that the illegal wiretapping Bush started after 9/11 was probably justifiable for a short period of time. This, of course, presumes that the decision-makers are exercising the proper judgment as to the necessity and efficacy of the measures and the duration of the imminence. That balance and judgment is what has been so wholly lacking under Bush.
This one from my sister, in south India {my interpolations}
"Luckily I don't have a TV or I would be more disturbed about the Mumbai incidents than I am. I am disturbed primarily because I am not sure what govt of India can do (except break off all relations with the US which is unrepentantly feeding the monster {by worrying about Pakistani sensibilities}).... It's nothing but an ongoing military war waged by two nations' militaries (Pakistan and Bangladesh) and Indians must admit that it is so instead of blathering about other things including terrorism."
BTW, she predicted, and I agreed, that the cost of a Pakistani government run by civilians would be an upsurge in terrorist incidents in India; and so it has come to pass. While she was here in the US we subscribed to all the Pakistani TV channels available on satellite, and she'd watch all the talk and news shows .
Who's culpable? The Shrubbites, the media, the political institutions, and the people. How many wrote to protest our government's actions either in the case of our fomenting a coup in Venezuela (personally, given the USGs past behavior, I don't believe for a moment that our involvement in the coup attempt was limited to some supportive words from a government official) or in the government's reaction to 9/11 or our attack on Iraq or yada, yada, yada? I know I did but I also know that the reaction I got to my letters to my elected officials told me I was spittin' in the wind.
Thanks Glenn for once again giving us the broader, strategic view of American government and M$M hypocrisy, to encourage a very needed self-examination of America’s culpability and the tragic results it brings.
While I don’t support a Truth Commission instead of criminal charges for the sake of the rule of law and making a stronger case for future government officials to follow the law, if there is a commission, then it should be expanded to how America has conducted foreign policy and shamed our ideals since WWII. While earlier history is also a major contributor, there has to be some limits to the scope of the commission.
The word foreign policy has always disturbed me because it immediately frames an “us against them – good guys against bad guys” mentality and how it is OK for us to use any means to further our aims. The frame should be partner policy where the goal would be a unified policy with neighbors for all to profit.
Envision our world today if the Marshall Plan could have been followed by a Partner Plan that could have used our wasted war money to lift people out of poverty and daily struggles to survive, to eliminate the need for insurgents and terrorism.
As Glenn has to constantly point out, most Americans have fallen for the idea that only highly educated foreign policy experts are capable of formulating foreign policy and telling us how to provide national security. And we fall for the same nonsense when we have to have highly informed media and "experts" with secret sources to tell us the inside story on the "truth" of what is happening.
Today these media because of the 24 hour news cycle, immediately wildly speculate on who the Mumbai terrorists are and who is behind the attacks. I just heard one of these idiots on MSNBC tell us that the head of the Pakistan intelligence service must have nefarious reasons for going to India to assist the Indian government and thus trying to stir up the conflict between India and Pakistan because wars are a lot more fun to talk about and cover. He makes no reference to the goals of the current Pakistani and Indian governments to ease relations between the two nations and that the visit is intended to keep relations from turning backwards. He’s an intelligence chief and intelligence guys are manipulators so how could he have good intentions.
So we have the circular, simplistic framing of good guys against the bad guys that started when Europeans invaded the Americas and took lands from the natives. It seems incredible that our nation still has that kind of a frame when developing partner relations with neighbors. Hard to believe when you take the logical, broad view that Glenn wants our government to take.
We have to get the logical, strategic thinking Barack Obama to not fall for our Serious foreign policy idiots and the mess they have made of the world in the last half of the 20th century and first decade of the 21st. We have to encourage him to form a partner policy team even though the team he will nominate is infected with foreign thinking.
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
