Bush's Torture Nation should not be shielded by Obama's desire to move forward

[pat_k]

St. Petersberg Times
We need to clean up our own dirty work
By Robyn E. Blumner, Times Columnist
April 9, 2009

Let's see, a U.S. court successfully convicted the son of the brutal former president of Liberia, Charles Taylor, of torturing his father's political opponents. But we're going to leave it to a Spanish judge to go after our own Torquemadas?

. . .this is our job, not Spain's. This is our unfinished business. The Bush administration's Torture Nation should not be shielded by President Barack Obama's desire to move forward. The president, who used as an applause line during his European tour how we've now "prohibited — without exception or equivocation — any use of torture," has some mopping up to do.

It takes no more convincing than reading the sickening descriptions of what we did to the 14 so-called high value detainees in the leaked report of the International Committee of the Red Cross. But it should be remembered that we inflicted these brutalities — beatings, exposure to frigid conditions, being shackled with arms overhead or shoehorned into tiny boxes, being denied sleep and kept naked — on hundreds of others, many of whom were never a threat and have been since released. That is, if they weren't among the 108 detainees who died in our hands, a figure offered last year by Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Colin Powell, in congressional testimony.

http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/columns/article991036.ece">More. . .

[Uzybone]

1. Is Congress asleep?

WTF is Conyers and the rest of congress doing about this?

[pat_k]

6. A "sleep" of sorts -- the unthinking state known as "Group Think"

Group think isn't "thinking." It is characterized a consensus 'reality' based on spurious beliefs that cut 'insiders" off from the realities of their situation.

Group think is circular. Wrong-headed perceptions are both based on, and shape, a consensus 'reality' -- and that reality tends to become increasingly narrow and dysfunctional. Decisions aren't "made." A "chosen" course of action is dictated by dogma that eliminates options from the get go.

Right now, the consensus 'reality' of a Democratic Party 'insider' does not include the possibility of prosecuting Bush and Cheney. As it was with impeachment, prosecution is literally unthinkable. Impossible. "Everybody knows" it can't/won't/shouldn't happen.

They are incapable of thinking rationally about the facts because those facts call for an action that is inconceivable to them. The belief that prosecution can't/won't/shouldn't happen is a conclusion in search of a rationale. As long as prosecution is 'unthinkable' the stark realities that demand prosecution are 'unthinkable" too. Everything they do and say is shaped by their drive to evade any thought that would challenge the precept that prosecution can't/won't/shouldn't happen.

Like the smoker who "knows" what smoking is doing to their lungs, as long as quitting today is "impossible" they must find ways to escape actually thinking about what they "know." (Because if they actually thought about it, they would have to act. Right Now.)

Beltway euphemisms keep the unthinkable realities at bay. It's not torture; it's "the torture question." Bush didn't usurp forbidden powers; he "pushed the envelope." When some reality is inescapable, the memes tumble out, the faster the better (else they might have a moment to think). Must look forward, not back. Mustn't appear "vindictive." Republicans would "go ballistic." Would be too divisive. . .

They have proven to be masterful escape artists. The truth is known. Bush and Cheney proudly confess their crimes. And yet our so-called "leaders" irrationally believe they are "doing something" by calling for utterly unnecessary "truth commissions" or "investigations."

Another evasive tactic is to express a willingness to prosecute under certain conditions. (I'll quit tomorrow.) This is of course nothing more than a denial of the reality that circumstances demand action NOW. They aren't actually "thinking" about doing the 'unthinkable" at some future time. They are just evading any thoughts about doing the 'unthinkable' today.

Confronting them head on and forcing them to think the 'unthinkable" requires "face-to-face" treatment at public forums, in meetings, on the phone. Like treating addiction, you just keep pounding away until something "works." (Of course, since they are elected officials, another "treatment" is to replace them -- to challenge them in the next primary.)

Perhaps the most important thing is to recognize how well-defended they are, else we are likely to give up in frustration. Group think is VERY hard to penetrate. Harder than addiction because the very identity of the group is defined by its consensus 'reality.' Members are special. They 'know better' than the outsiders who challenge their 'decisions.' Heretical thought is suppressed by the basic human need to belong to the group. Members who reject or challenge the consensus reality lose their status as one of the 'special.' They become "outsiders" who can be dismissed.

[Echo In Light]

2. The "move forward" ruse is always the cover for Institutional collusion. Especially when it's...

...obvious that there really won't be any 'moving forward' on the crimes/sins of empire. It's merely a 'reasonable' sounding ploy to coax the public mind toward NOT opening a can of worms that would invariably shed unwelcome light on any number of related atrocities and cover ups.

[pat_k]

9. Yep. Just another of the memes employed to cut off thought. . .

Inside the beltway prosecuting Bush and Cheney is inconceivable. The universal belief that it can't/won't/shouldn't happen is a conclusion in search of a rationale. All the false memes, lame excuses, immoral excuses, and irrational blather serve to defend their 'reality.'

"Looking forward, not back" and its cousin "making sure it doesn't happen again" (instead of punishing those who did "it") are among the the most insidious of the false memes. Another is the bipartisanship doctrine -- the notion that the public wants Dems to "work with' the torturers. Out of the bipartisanship doctrine comes their fear of 'backlash' -- the absurd notion that "the public" would "rise up" against them if they labeled corrupt people and accused them of their crimes. (The dreaded "politics of personal destruction.") They are so far gone they believe that simply failing to show 'respect" to the wrong-doers in their midst would upset us.

These assumptions are, of course, the opposite of reality. People love to see champions go after villains. Our government isn't corrupted by some abstract 'process' or force that needs 'fixing" so it "won't happen again." It is corrupted by people who abuse power to advance their own agenda -- people who must be punished for their acts. Stories of heroes who get the bad guys are the meat and potatoes of engaging entertainment for a reason -- they reflect our need to protect ourselves by going after the bad guys in real life.

The damage done by the bizarre beliefs is exacerbated by the beltway brand of "risk-benefit" analysis that focuses solely on the "risks" (which are, more often than not, irrational fears). When standing up for principle would require condemnation of the opposition, or would otherwise challenge 'business as usual' status quo, they are driven to "stand down" by their fears of some "bad thing" that will happen. Any benefits of fighting on principle, or negative consequences of failing to, have no place in their "thinking" (i.e., http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5447507&mesg_id=5448828">the non-thought of group think). Their fear of arousing the mythical backlash beast and aversion to 'personal attack' (which might earn them dirty looks at cocktail parties) trumps all.

[Echo In Light]

13. G. Carlin's definition of BIPARTISAN: "A larger than usual deception is being carried out against ..

...the American people."

[ima_sinnic]

3. obama will never get my support unless/until he deals w this, & w habeas corpus

-- until then, he is just another two-faced, lying, corrupt politician who says whatever We The People want to hear long enough to get elected before kissing the asses of the ruling elite, his real masters.

I don't care about his other "reforms"--injustice, illegality, corruption, and blatant violations of the Constitution override all that because they indicate cancer in the soul of the nation that eats away at our credibility and our humanity.

the "constitutional scholar" BULLSHIT just ain't cutting it.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

5. BUSH IS TOXIFYING OBAMA

THE STINK, THE ROT

[pat_k]

10. And worse, Bush committed war crimes, but Obama turned the USA a War Criminal Nation.

Criminals don't destroy us; only the failure of the enforcers can do that. We designed a government and a legal system to deal with criminals like bush and cheney. They committed war crimes, but they are not the ones that turned us into a War Criminal nation. The failure of those charged with enforcing our constitution and our law did that. Pelosi and her "off the table" edict. The House and Senate "leadership" who refused to demand impeachment. Obama, Holder, Panetta and all the others who refuse to launch an immediate prosecution.

The horrible truth is that Obama, Pelosi, Reid, et al are doing more to turn back decades of progress toward "a more perfect union" than bush and cheney ever could. And as long as they refuse to act, they are keeping us from getting back on the path to a true America.

You are absolutely right. Any "progress" is trumped by their failures. With our foundation in ruins, anything they manage to "build" will be as lasting as a castle built of sand.

[ima_sinnic]

4. kick

already recommended

I think it is noteworthy that this is the St. Pete Times, ferchrissake.

[pleah]

7. K&R No support from me as long as war crimes are swept under the rug.

Prosecutions and nothing less.

[ThomWV]

8. Let's get this back up to the top, where it should stay until someone is in jail

[ima_sinnic]

11. another kick--it is gratifying to see an apparent "establishment" paper take this up (nt)

[Senator]

12. K&R