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Thursday, December 18. 2008
Given the Opportunity
Monday, on ABC News, Vice President Dick Cheney admitted he authorized the use of torture against Al Qa’ida suspect, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Earth shattering. Just a week ago a Senate Armed Services Committee report confirmed that U.S. personnel used torture on detainees at Guantanamo Bay, putting former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in the crosshairs of who was responsible for authorizing it. Not just authorizing it, but crafting the plan on what tortures to use and how to use them.What kind of sick and twisted people do we have running government? The whole point of declaring these people “enemy combatants,” instead of “prisoners of war,” was designed specifically to skirt the Geneva Conventions specifically so they could torture the detainees. In other words, these twisted motherfuckers knew, going into this — maybe had decided years before they even found themselves at the helm of government — that torture is okay and they were going to use it if given the opportunity.
The report, which came out December 11, said a panel of top officials crafted the plan after a series of meetings about the use of torture and on February 7, 2002 the president signed a “memo” officially authorizing the policy. The report also says that our current Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, participated in the meetings and signed off on the policy as well.
What does it do to our diplomatic integrity when we cite our own top diplomat as being in favor of torture? And now, the man sitting at the center of power — not the president, but the real power — admits he personally authorized the use of torture?Obviously, Cheney, Rumsfeld and their PNAC brethren had torture in mind long before Al Qa’ida brought down the World Trade Center. These guys, who had once been on the inside of power with Presidents Reagan and Bush (41), had a vision of how America should carry itself in the world as the sole superpower and in 1997 they formally put that philosophy on paper.
Lucky for them, a dimwit from Texas, whose only goal in life at the time was to be president, whose only policy ambition if elected was to reform immigration, was at the top of the Republican ticket and their man, Dick Cheney, former Secretary of Defense, had put himself in the chair of the vice president.
With the philosophy and plan of the neo-con vision already crafted, Dick Cheney could implement it if elected. The dimwit from Texas relied on other people to do his job, making it a slam-dunk for their man Cheney to be the true power in the White House and then the Supreme Court, in December of 2000, gave them the White House.
Once that occurred, the abuse of power and the destruction of American values could begin.
Dick Cheney openly controlled energy policy. He held a series of secret meetings at the White House with energy industry executives whose names — to this day — were withheld from the public. Today, we find ourselves so dependent on foreign oil — and as a result, in hock to a variety of foreign nations, most notably China — we are on the verge of collapse. I remember in 2003-04 when Michael Moore’s movie, Fahrenheit 911 came out, he was rebuked from all sides for the “allegations” he made in the film. There were charges of lies, yet no one would ever pinpoint what were the lies — other than the lies the Bush Administration (and campaign) were telling, that Moore brought to light. The neo-cons so effectively marginalized Michael Moore that by the time the 2004 Democratic National Convention rolled around in August of that year, he was not welcome.
Newspapers echoed the neo-con message, even the New York Times and the Washington Post derided Michael Moore. The filmmaker and his film had been, in essence, removed from the debate.
Four years later, who’s been caught lying now?
The Bush Administration made torture official policy, one that includes forced nudity, painful stress positions, sleep deprivation, extreme temperatures and use of dogs and water boarding, what we thought of as criminal when we tried Japanese soldiers for war crimes after WWII because they used it on American fliers. Sound familiar?
Oh yeah, the Senate report said the abuse and torture at Abu Ghraib wasn’t the activity of “a few bad apples” as the Bush Administration claimed when the soldiers went on trial for those crimes. Instead, it was a policy created at the very highest levels of government, directed by those at the very highest levels of government, leading to the conclusion that it was all a part of the effort to create a “New American Century.”
Let’s not forget extraordinary rendition, the policy of capturing suspected enemies and secretly sending them to countries that have no qualms about torture, the C.I.A.’s own secret interrogation camps in countries formerly a part of the Soviet Union, Guantanamo Bay and of course Abu Ghraib Prison in Baghdad — all of that started with the PNAC members in control of government waiting for their “Pearl Harbor Moment.” Well, welcome to the New American Century my fellow Americans! How do you like it now?
The Bush Administration has so diminished our standing in the world, no one could ever take us seriously, not with this bunch in power. General David Petraeus, the “hero” who saved Iraq, every Republican’s favorite general, said in 2007, “Our values and the laws governing warfare teach us to respect human dignity, maintain our integrity, and do what is right. Adherence to our values distinguishes us from our enemy.”
At this moment, we are not distinguished from our enemies; we do not have the moral high ground; we are not the shining beacon of truth, liberty, justice and decency we tell our school children. We are just another second rate power ruled by despots who have no regard for human life.
The saddest truth of all is this: in November 2004 nearly 51% of my fellow voters chose this crowd to run the country for a second term. What does it say about us, as a people, that we authorized the use of torture when we elected George W. Bush and Dick Cheney to serve another four years?
Just because the Senate report was released only a week ago doesn’t mean this wasn’t already public knowledge. No, we began to learn of it long before the election and the Administration was calling those who brought it to light “traitors” for betraying those who betrayed our values. Even today there are people who think torture of our enemies is okay.Nope, Cheney, Bush, Rice, Rumsfeld, et. al, aren’t the only ones responsible, we as a Nation must accept our share of responsibility. We gave them the green light, after the fact in 2004, but nonetheless told the ones in power they had our permission. For that, we are responsible.
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