Archive for February, 2009

Immunity for Some, Jail for Others

February 17, 2009 at 8:04 am · Filed under Blogroll ·Tagged , , , , , ,

Today Glenn Greenwald talks again about what to do about the numerous laws and treaties that were broken by the Bush administration over their eight years in power. Greenwald (from what I can gather) wants full investigations, leading up to criminal prosecutions for everyone – from Bush all the way down to a lowly Army Private. While I dream of the day George Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Alberto Gonzalez and a lot of other people are behind bars, I’m not sure going after everyone is the way to go. We would spend hundreds of millions of dollars (that probably don’t even exist) of our tax money, but the better lawyers will be on the defense side. If we waste years trying to prosecute these people, and in the end the only people who go to jail are a few 25 year olds from Kansas who thought they were doing what is right, we will be in an even worse position than we are now. Greenwald makes a criticism of Joe Conason:

On Friday in Salon, Joe Conason argued that there should be no criminal investigations of any kind for Bush officials “who authorized torture or other outrages in the ‘war on terror’.”  Instead, Conason suggests that there be a presidential commission created that is “purely investigative,” and Obama should “promis[e] a complete pardon to anyone who testifies fully, honestly and publicly.”  So, under this proposal, not only would we adopt an absolute bar against prosecuting war criminals and other Bush administration felons, we would go in the other direction and pardon them from any criminal liability of any kind.

I don’t know if Greenwald is misunderstanding Conason or if Conason himself is confused and would be willing to pardon anyone – including Rumsfeld or Bush – who admits to what they did. I think both of these men are wrong- we should neither go after every single person involved nor pardon everyone who tells the truth. My opinion is that we should follow the Truth and Reconciliation Committee (or at least follow the TRC as I understand it; which isn’t very great). Under no circumstance should we even entertain the idea of pardoning the top tier people- Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Rice, etc. but the only way there is a chance in proving their guilt is if we offer immunity to lower-tier people who are willing to admit what they did and tell the truth. This means, if someone not on the highest level is willing to sit in a courtroom and spill everything (s)he did, while showing at least some remorse for his or her actions, then they get immunity. I would be willing to bet that there would be dozens – if not hundreds – of people coming forward to take advantage of this.

This is all a moot point however because the Obama administration (perhaps out of fear of what will happen to them in 4 or 8 years) has repeatedly said that they will not go after anyone for any kind of war crime charges (not only that, but they are actually sticking up for a number of people from the Bush administration). Why is Obama ignoring the law and his obligation as president? Because he is the bridge building, bipartisan, 21st century Abe Lincoln. I understand the need to work with the opposition, I understand that if we have a country of “us and them” we are doomed to fail, but there comes a certain point where you have to draw the line. When the Allied forces defeated the Nazi army, did they appoint a new government that would work with old Nazis? When the US took out the government of Saddam Hussein did they have a meeting with all the old Ba’ath members to see how bridges could be built? No, of course not. While it is necessary for Obama and the Democrats to work with Congressional Republicans in order to have a less divided country, it is not necessary to protect war criminals.

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Obedience

February 14, 2009 at 9:10 am · Filed under Blogroll ·Tagged , , , , , ,

The concept of obedience is something that is constantly bouncing around in my tiny brain (in my strangely large head). I constantly wonder why the majority of human beings – especially USers – go along with the status quo. Even when I end up liking or agreeing with something that the majority of other people like or agree with, I begin to question myself. The politicians and corporations who run this country generally make decisions based on how much money they can make or how much power they can gain. The wars that we are in right now are not because we are trying to make the world safer, but because there is money to be made. We the people, even though most of us know this at some level, simply go along with things the way we are. We tell ourselves that, even if it’s not great, this is the system we have and we just have to deal with it until it somehow changes.

Arthur Silber has been writing lately of tribalism (I linked to part three, but I seriously recommend checking out parts one and two as well) and it makes things slightly clearer. I’ll start with a quote:

When the person in the inferior position obeys, he does so because of his certain knowledge that if he does not, he will be punished in some form: psychologically, legally, socially, or in some other way. Thus, the primary (although not the sole) motivation that ensures obedience is negative in nature: it is not the promise of a reward (even though certain rewards may be offered), but the assurance that he will not suffer consequences that are painful in varying degrees, i.e., that he will not be punished.

the fear of being punished; I don’t want to focus too much on the fear of being legally punished, but rather the psychological and – especially – social punishments are what interest me. When we first began occupying Iraq and Afghanistan (despite the protests that occurred right before the occupations) the great majority of USers supported what we were doing. Almost every place I went – with the exception of school – people were talking about getting revenge for 9/11 or finally killing Saddam. Anyone who dared speak out against what we were doing was un-American or, if they had brown or black skin, a terrorist. There were plenty of people (I’d say a much higher percentage than most people think) who were – somewhere in their mind or heart – against what was happening, but were too afraid to speak up. When you are part of the majority, life is good- you can sit in a big group and all laugh together, all get angry together, and all mock outsiders. However, when you have the courage to voice an opinion that goes against what the majority think, it is not a fun place to be. Try going into a bar sometime, listening to what a big group of people are talking about, and then disagreeing. Try going to a protest or rally somewhere where you are in the high minority; again, not fun. This is the reason why we have a two party system; we are trained so well to obey and go along with what the majority thinks that not many people can handle the isolation that comes with supporting a non-mainstream politician or going against a bi-partisan bill. While George W Bush was president, I heard many people calling his supporters sheeps; he was a monster, a war criminal, and a liar and yet these people mindlessly followed him. However, most of the people who were mocking the Bushites are now doing the exact same thing for Obama.

I don’t know how we can reverse this trend of obedience that is killing the once greatest country in the world. As hippie as this sounds; people need to get in touch with their hearts, their Truth, and then follow it. People need to take time to learn; don’t just read the headline that tells you whether the stimulus plan is good or bad- read the whole article, read articles with different opinions, study the past, and then make your own decision. If your decision is off the wall or different than the mainstream, who cares? If you hear arguments by friends, family, and pundits as to why torture is a necessary evil, yet you know in your heart that it just doesn’t feel right, then speak out against it. If you drive past a rally, or are having lunch at a restaurant and see a band of protestors walk by and you want to join them- JOIN THEM. Everything good that has happened in this country has started with a few people refusing to be obedient and, instead of following laws, following their hearts. We are in two never-ending wars, we are occupying dozens of other countries (some directly some not so much), our economy is falling apart, the majority of the things we buy are made by exploiting other people or entire cultures, we are destroying the earth for our offspring- now is the time to speak out. Do you see the wave coming? Do you feel the ground rumbling? Do you hear people starting to get angry? I do.

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Will Disappointment Lead to Revolution?

February 13, 2009 at 7:52 am · Filed under Blogroll ·Tagged , , , , , , ,

I want to be quick today; I woke up this morning very excited that pitchers and catchers are reporting. I’m not as into baseball (or sports in general) as I was when I was younger, but to me this is the official homestretch of winter. I hadn’t read any articles in the past two days – although I had heard rumblings about the stimulus plan and the Israeli elections – so I haven’t been to cynical. Then I began reading again; there are some times when being right feels really good, and other times – like now – where being right is a bad thing. I have been saying for around a year now that people are going to be disappointed with Obama, that he is not as left-wing as the media is making him out to be, he is not going to save the world, and that in order to reach the level of even being considered for President of the United States, there has to be some kind of corruption and love of our broken, unfair system. Some people agreed with me, a couple even changed their minds, but the vast majority was blinded by hope. I was a huge fan of Glenn Greenwald leading up to the election, until he started fondling the balls of Mr. Obama. Now, even Greenwald has realized that Obama is nowhere near the person people were making him out to be. He may seem left-wing because of the beast we had in office for the past eight years, but in reality he is center/right. He goes to court to help Bush officials, he passes stimulus bills that – again – will only help the super rich, he is beginning to go back on his word about ending the war in 16 months, and he publicly threatened perhaps our biggest ally. Chris Floyd blames Obama while Greenwald (fairly I believe) points his finger at Obama’s supporters. Obama needs to be forced to act in our interests (as hundreds of people have said millions of times) and the people who need to force him are asleep at the wheel. There are the people who voted for him and are now blind to everything he is doing, there are the people who voted for him and then decided to go back to sleep (they are probably disappointed in what is happening, but they figure they’ll get the opportunity to make their voices hear in four years, at the next big election), and there are the people who see that Obama is doing things that go against their beliefs, but instead of working hard to make sure the president hears them, they are changing their beliefs to align more with their leader. I don’t know what it’s going to take for a few million people to take to the streets and demand real change, but I have a feeling that the time isn’t too far off.

Why do I have this feeling? Despite popular opinion, the US is not the only place on earth, and we certainly aren’t the only place on earth feeling an economic down crunch. Our friends across the Atlantic – from England to France to Poland to countries that I can’t pronounce or spell – are all suffering like us- and worse. The difference in how they respond is truly astonishing; while we complain to our friends over beer, have pointless rallies, and write letters- they take to the streets! Read the article I just linked to, send it to as many people as you can, and let’s get this goddamned revolution started!

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D’oh

February 4, 2009 at 7:30 am · Filed under Blogroll ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , ,

You know how sometimes you’ll go to school or work – just like a normal day – and be in the middle of doing whatever it is you do, when suddenly you realize that you have a very important meeting or that you left the stove on at home? A number of times in the past few months I have had that kind of moment- only it doesn’t involve the stove or a meeting. I’ll be reading an article about Palestinians or how great Obama is, or I’ll be walking to school thinking about what a beautiful world it is, when suddenly I remember that my country is involved in (at least) two illegal occupations. I begin to think about Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney, H Clinton, Obama, Biden, Gonzalez and I wonder if they’re getting nervous or they feel bad. I think about Rupert Murdock and all the other newspaper and TV station owners and wonder if they can sleep at night while knowingly depriving the USian public any facts as to what is happening in the Middle East (or the rest of the world, really). Our country, using our tax dollars and smearing our good names, has tens of thousands of our brothers and sisters thousands of miles away, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people and destroying entire countries. All so a few (less than .1% of the world’s population) can make a few billion extra dollars. All so a small percentage of a country that makes up a small percentage of the world’s population can feel safe. Our economy is in the shitter, our education system is getting worse and worse, the middle class is quickly going the way of the dinosaur, and tens of millions of children don’t have healthcare. A great number of USers have convinced themselves that Barrack Obama is going to change all of this- he’s going to wave his little magic wand, or whatever it is he uses to make change, and end all these problems. We are spending a few hundred billion dollars on defense- and that doesn’t even include the money we spend in Iraq and Afghanistan or the money we give to puppet governments (and there are dozens and dozens of them). Where does this money go? The majority of it goes in the pockets of the CEO’s and stockholders at Lockheed-Martin, Halliburton, Bektel and all the other corporations making money off of genocide. Imagine we took just some of these trillions of dollars, combined it with the trillions of dollars we are constantly giving to the rich bankers and investors, and used it for something else. Imagine that, instead of having blind hope in the war criminal/ally of the rich/president, we forced him to give this money back to the people. End the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, stop giving billions of dollars to the Israeli Defense Force, stop giving trillions of dollars to Wall St, and instead give the money to the people. Pay teachers a fair salary, put more money into school in poor districts, pay off people’s debts, give sick people free health care, give poor people a free college education; the list of sensible, fair ways to spend our tax dollars can go on forever, but who is listening?

Something I’ve talked about in previous posts is human beings and their insane obedience- see the Holocaust, the Bush presidency, the bailout… We are brought up depending on our parents; we must listen to whatever they say and do whatever we can to maintain their love, because we rely on them for food, shelter, and the likes. Most parents abuse this power (since their parents abused it and so on) and so we are brought up blindly following their authority. This continues when we have teachers, when we deal with the police, when we vote for and then ignore our elected representatives, and so on. Read Alice Miller, click on the above link and read some of Arthur Silber’s recent posts on tribalism. Fuck it, here are some more links.

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