Map of life expectancy at birth from Global Education Project.

Friday, May 15, 2009

I just got to say . . .

I don't have anything important to add to the current discussion about the crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Cheney administration, but I will state my views just because I think we all must.

There is now a pretty compelling case, on the public record, based on declarations by officials of the former administration -- conservative Republicans all -- that the U.S. executive ordered the brutal, months long torture of at least three people who have been identified, and quite likely many more, in order to manufacture evidence to justify an illegal war of agression. That the president and vice president lied, repeatedly, in public, even without benefit of the false confessions they sought, in order to terrorize the country into that war, is a fact fully established by publicly available information. An illegal war of aggression is a crime against humanity.

We are now having a debate over whether we ought to investigate these matters at all, with the limit of the debate on the one hand being that we should just forget about it, and on the other that we might have some form of legislative inquiry but only on condition that there be no recriminations. The current president, in whome many of us invested so much hope, takes the former position.

The terrorists have won. We have become them. The United States has surrendered to its enemies without even a whimper.

3 comments:

C. Corax said...

That, sadly, hits the nail on the head. But you're not really surprised. But the U.S. coddling right wing dictators is nothing new, so why would we eat our own? I just was reading about this charmer. Just one of many....

kathy a. said...

i think i'm as appalled as you at what happened -- and so are many people. there are going to continue to be investigations, and i hope eventually action punishing those involved. those orchestrating, and lying, and prodding us into a nightmare or few.

this administration is elbow-deep in triage, with all the problems it inherited. war crimes can be prosecuted anytime -- there isn't a statute of limitations. people sick and starving and out of work, though, can't wait.

why would obama put prosecuting cheney ahead of trying to fix some of the messes before they get worse? if he put cheney first, it would divert so much from things that need fixing now. i think it is kind of brilliant to let cheney stew in his own pathetic juices anyway. talk about torture.

kathy a. said...

the torture i mention for cheney is not torture under our constition or international law. it is letting any remaining human parts eat his heart alive, knowing what he did.