by Chris Hedges
This is the text of a talk by Chris Hedges that will be read at anti-war gatherings to be held by The World Can't Wait in New York's Union Square, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Nashville, Louisville, Chicago and Berkeley on March 19 to protest the sixth anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq.
Barack Obama has shown that he is as capable of doublespeak as any other politician when he announced an end to the war in Iraq. Combat troops are to be pulled out of Iraq by August 2010, he said, but some 50,000 occupation troops will remain behind. Someone should let the Iraqis know the distinction. I doubt any soldier or Marine in Iraq will notice much difference in 19 months. Many combat units will simply be relabeled as noncombat units. And what about our small army of well-paid contractors and mercenaries? Will Dyncorp, Bechtel, Blackwater (which recently changed its name to Xe), all of whom have made fortunes off the war, pack up and go home? What about the three large super-bases, dozens of smaller military outposts and our imperial city, the Green Zone? Will American corporations give up their lucrative control of Iraqi oil?
The occupation of Iraq will not be disrupted. Lies and deception, which launched the war in the first place, are being employed by Democrats to maintain it. This is not a withdrawal. It is occupation lite. And as long as American troops are on Iraqi soil the war will grind on, the death toll on each side will continue to mount and we will remain a lightning rod for hatred and rage in the Middle East. Add to this Obama's decision to increase troop levels in Afghanistan and even his most purblind supporters will have to admit the new president is as intent on maintaining American empire as the old.
The occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan has not promoted U.S. security or stability in the Middle East. These occupations have furthered the spread of failed states, increased authoritarianism and unleashed savage violence. They have opened up voids of lawlessness, including in the tribal areas of Pakistan, where our real enemies can operate and plot against us. These occupations have scuttled the art of diplomacy and mocked the rule of law. We have become an outlaw state intent on creating more outlaw states. The occupations have, finally, empowered Iran, as well as Russia and China, which gleefully watch our self-immolation. And, in the end, we cannot win these wars. We will withdraw all our troops in an orderly manner or see these occupations collapse in an orgy of bloodshed.
Iraq, because of our invasion and occupation, no longer exists as a unified country. The experiment that was Iraq, the cobbling together of disparate and antagonistic patches of the Ottoman Empire by the victorious powers in the wake of World War I, will never come back. The Kurds have set up a de facto state in the north. The Shiites control most of the south. The center of the country is a battleground. There are at least 2 million Iraqis who have fled their homes and are internally displaced. Another 2 million have left the country, most to Syria and Jordan, which now has the largest number of refugees per capita of any country on Earth. And perhaps as many as 1.2 million Iraqis are dead because of what we have done.
The eight-year war in Afghanistan has seen the Taliban re-emerge from the ashes. An additional 30,000 troops will do little to prop up the detested and corrupt regime of Hamid Karzai. Our attempt to buy off Afghan tribal groups with money and even weapons has collapsed, with most slipping back into the arms of the Taliban insurgents. The U.N. estimates that the Taliban is now raking in $300 million a year from the expanded poppy trade to fund the resistance. The Taliban controlled about 75 percent of Afghan territory when we invaded eight years ago. It has recaptured about half of the country since its initial defeat, and its reach has expanded to the outskirts of major cities such as Kabul and Kandahar. Twenty-nine American troops died in Afghanistan the first two months of 2009, a threefold increase compared with the eight who died during the same period last year. And more Afghan civilians are dying in allied operations than at the hands of the Taliban, according to a count by the Associated Press. In the first two months of the year, American, NATO or Afghan forces have killed 100 civilians, while militants have killed 60.
Do the cheerleaders for an expanded war in Afghanistan know any history? Have they studied what happened to the Soviets, who lost 15,000 Red Army soldiers between 1979 and 1988, or even the British in the 19th century? Do they remember why we went into Afghanistan? It was, we were told, to hunt down Osama bin Laden, who is now apparently in Pakistan. Has anyone asked what our end goal is in Afghanistan? Is it nation-building? Have we declared war on the Taliban? Or is this simply the forever war on terror?
Al-Qaida, which we have also inadvertently resurrected, still finds plenty of recruits. It still runs training facilities. It still carries out attacks in London, Madrid, Iraq and now Afghanistan, which did not experience suicide bombings until December 2005. Al-Qaida has moved on. But we remain stuck, confused and lashing about wildly like a wounded and lumbering beast.
Obama, during the campaign, promised that he would pull out one combat brigade per month over a 16-month period from Iraq. But this promise has been scrapped. Instead, troop levels will remain steady for most of this year and into the first few months of 2010. Troops will only start leaving, we are told, in large numbers in the spring and summer of next year, but even the pace of this downsizing will be left to the discretion of commanders. The troops left in Iraq after the "withdrawal" will, the Obama administration says, train Iraqi soldiers, protect U.S. assets and conduct "anti-terror operations."
The U.S. agreement with Iraq, known as SOFA, or status of forces agreement, calls for all U.S. forces to be out of Iraq by the end of December 2011. But this seems very unlikely. The Pentagon has, despite the SOFA agreement, built its long-range planning around the assumption that anywhere from 30,000 to 50,000 troops will be based in Iraq long after 2011. The U.S.-Iraq agreement (which was ratified by the Iraqi parliament but never brought to the U.S. Senate for ratification, as mandated by the Constitution) calls for a national referendum to be held in Iraq during the summer of 2009. Iraqis will supposedly be able to approve or reject the agreement. The some 50 U.S. bases in Iraq are, under the agreement, to be turned over to the Iraqis.
Will Obama defy the results of a referendum and ram the continued occupation down the throats of Iraqi voters? It certainly looks like it. Of course, all this will be handled, I suspect, by having our client government in Baghdad "request" that we remain, making an even greater farce of our public commitment to democracy.
There are huge corporations who are making a lot of money off this war. Obama seems intent on not impeding the profits. So much for our anti-war candidate. We should have known better than to trust the Democrats after they rode to power in Congress in 2006 on an anti-war platform and then continued to fund our wars and approve increased troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan.
If the delicate cease-fire we have negotiated with the former Sunni insurgents in Iraq breaks down, how will we respond? Suppose the some 100,000 Sunnis, who have been allowed to ethnically cleanse the areas they control and build militias, turn on the central Shiite-led government. Suppose we can no longer buy off these Sunni "Awakening" militias with the $300-a-month salaries we dispense to these fighters. Suppose the war heats up again. This is what happened in Afghanistan when we tried to bribe tribal groups with money and support. A deterioration of the security situation in Iraq could instantly scuttle even a reduction of forces.
And the military, if some troops do leave Iraq, will have to rely more heavily on airstrikes to control territory and keep insurgents at bay. The airstrikes in Afghanistan have, along with the expanded fighting, driven tens of thousands of Afghan refugees into Iran and Pakistan. Even the Karzai government has vigorously protested these airstrikes, which feed scores of recruits to the Taliban. Expect the same ugly backlash in Iraq.
I could live with the prolonged injustice of the occupation in Iraq if I thought there would really be peace, that we could then help rebuild the country we destroyed and that we had restored the rule of law by rejecting the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive war, something that under post-Nuremberg laws is defined as a criminal "war of aggression." I could live with 19 months more of the war if I knew it would really be the end. But the war in Iraq, like Afghanistan, will go on. Our imperial projects and killing will continue under the Obama presidency. Many more, including some of our own, will die.
The only hope now lies in renewed protests against the war and a reinvigorated anti-war movement. This time the movement should hold fast, as stalwarts like Cindy Sheehan, Cynthia McKinney and Ralph Nader have, to the moral imperative of peace and not the false hopes offered by the Democrats. They cannot be trusted. Politics is a game of pressure. Abandon that pressure and you lose.
Monday, March 2, 2009
The Audacity of Borrowing
By Phil Levy
This week's budget sketch from the Obama administration has stirred lots of partisan debate: A liberal dream come true! A conservative nightmare! For all of its occasional tedium, one of the nice aspects of economics is that markets often let you keep score in real time. And markets seem to be sending an unambiguous signal that the U.S. economy is now headed in the wrong direction.
At the heart of the debate, President Obama believes that massive spending and borrowing will ultimately strengthen the country. He regards the new proposals in health care, education, and energy as investments. Critics counter that these massive programs will bankrupt the country.
A first temptation is to look to the stock market for a verdict, and the stock market did not seem pleased. It has shown a tendency to swoon with almost every landmark moment of this administration. But supporters of the administration have argued that the stock market is too focused on the short term, that it is driven by other factors, that the market is more of a moodring than a carefully reasoned verdict.
Fortunately, there are other markets that give a cleaner reaction. In particular, one can look at the government bond market, which is now giving the Obama plan a decided thumbs-down. The interest rate on the 10-year U.S. Government Treasury note helps set borrowing rates for corporations and households. It is not the very short term rate that the Fed has pushed near zero. It covers the same time frame that the Obama administration has now picked for its budget outlook. Unlike the stock market, there are no questions of dividend cuts, consumer fads, new competition, or management failures to muddy the picture.
This clarity led to the classic James Carville quote from early in the Clinton administration: "I used to think if there was reincarnation, I wanted to comeback as the President or the Pope or a .400 baseball hitter, but now I want to come back as the bond market. You can intimidate everybody."
A bond investor need only consider a few particular risks. There is the risk of inflation, which cuts into the spending power of the dollars investors receive later on. For foreign investors, there is the risk of a falling dollar, since they will ultimately need to convert their bond returns back into their own currency. Then there is the risk of default. That has been an important consideration for shaky businesses and emerging market basket cases, but not for a country like the United States. Until now.
In November and December, as investors panicked worldwide and rushed to the safety of U.S. government bonds, the interest rate on 10-year government bonds plunged to near 2 percent. From a low on December 30, the rate has rocketed back up to over 3 percent today, reflecting a sharp drop in the value of bonds. This is not because the rest of the world has solved its problems.
An even clearer negative verdict on Obama's approach comes from the much-maligned market for credit default swaps. These swaps function like insurance contracts that pay off if a borrower fails to make good. That insurance gets more expensive when the likelihood of default increases. The idea of a U.S. government default has recently gone from "unthinkable" to close to 10 percent over the next five years.
So what is scaring the bond traders? Perhaps they spent last weekend reading a timely report by the distinguished economists Alan Auerbach (UC-Berkeley) and Bill Gale (Brookings). The upshot is that the United States has serious long-term fiscal challenges, between the downturn, an aging population, and major entitlement programs. None of the options for getting out of the mess looked particularly palatable. And that was before the president spoke of an extra trillion dollars for health care.
Despite claims of a new realism, the administration's budget is loaded with optimism. It assumes the economy will have a quicker and more vigorous recovery than most private forecasters predict. It assumes that individuals won't change their behavior much to avoid new, higher tax rates. It assumes that sacred cows such as mortgage interest deductibility and agricultural subsidies are ready to be made into hamburgers. And even with all this optimism, the administration predicts red ink as far as the eye can see.
Meanwhile the administration is trying to pretend the crises in the financial and housing sectors will go away on their own. Although a storm is already raging, the administration is not setting much aside for a rainy day. The IMF recently predicted potential bank sector write-downs of $2.2 trillion globally, perhaps half of that in the United States. Nouriel Roubini (NYU) suggests $3.6 trillion. Any such loss would leave the administration with a choice: borrow even more to fill the holes, or watch tax revenue shrivel up as the financial sector crumbles and the economy asphyxiates. If they continue to borrow, at some point we will test the limits of the world's willingness to lend and call into question America's status as a financial safehaven. Higher interest rates will then make a bad situation worse.
I can't say for certain that this is what is scaring the bond market. But I know it's what's scaring me.
This week's budget sketch from the Obama administration has stirred lots of partisan debate: A liberal dream come true! A conservative nightmare! For all of its occasional tedium, one of the nice aspects of economics is that markets often let you keep score in real time. And markets seem to be sending an unambiguous signal that the U.S. economy is now headed in the wrong direction.
At the heart of the debate, President Obama believes that massive spending and borrowing will ultimately strengthen the country. He regards the new proposals in health care, education, and energy as investments. Critics counter that these massive programs will bankrupt the country.
A first temptation is to look to the stock market for a verdict, and the stock market did not seem pleased. It has shown a tendency to swoon with almost every landmark moment of this administration. But supporters of the administration have argued that the stock market is too focused on the short term, that it is driven by other factors, that the market is more of a moodring than a carefully reasoned verdict.
Fortunately, there are other markets that give a cleaner reaction. In particular, one can look at the government bond market, which is now giving the Obama plan a decided thumbs-down. The interest rate on the 10-year U.S. Government Treasury note helps set borrowing rates for corporations and households. It is not the very short term rate that the Fed has pushed near zero. It covers the same time frame that the Obama administration has now picked for its budget outlook. Unlike the stock market, there are no questions of dividend cuts, consumer fads, new competition, or management failures to muddy the picture.
This clarity led to the classic James Carville quote from early in the Clinton administration: "I used to think if there was reincarnation, I wanted to comeback as the President or the Pope or a .400 baseball hitter, but now I want to come back as the bond market. You can intimidate everybody."
A bond investor need only consider a few particular risks. There is the risk of inflation, which cuts into the spending power of the dollars investors receive later on. For foreign investors, there is the risk of a falling dollar, since they will ultimately need to convert their bond returns back into their own currency. Then there is the risk of default. That has been an important consideration for shaky businesses and emerging market basket cases, but not for a country like the United States. Until now.
In November and December, as investors panicked worldwide and rushed to the safety of U.S. government bonds, the interest rate on 10-year government bonds plunged to near 2 percent. From a low on December 30, the rate has rocketed back up to over 3 percent today, reflecting a sharp drop in the value of bonds. This is not because the rest of the world has solved its problems.
An even clearer negative verdict on Obama's approach comes from the much-maligned market for credit default swaps. These swaps function like insurance contracts that pay off if a borrower fails to make good. That insurance gets more expensive when the likelihood of default increases. The idea of a U.S. government default has recently gone from "unthinkable" to close to 10 percent over the next five years.
So what is scaring the bond traders? Perhaps they spent last weekend reading a timely report by the distinguished economists Alan Auerbach (UC-Berkeley) and Bill Gale (Brookings). The upshot is that the United States has serious long-term fiscal challenges, between the downturn, an aging population, and major entitlement programs. None of the options for getting out of the mess looked particularly palatable. And that was before the president spoke of an extra trillion dollars for health care.
Despite claims of a new realism, the administration's budget is loaded with optimism. It assumes the economy will have a quicker and more vigorous recovery than most private forecasters predict. It assumes that individuals won't change their behavior much to avoid new, higher tax rates. It assumes that sacred cows such as mortgage interest deductibility and agricultural subsidies are ready to be made into hamburgers. And even with all this optimism, the administration predicts red ink as far as the eye can see.
Meanwhile the administration is trying to pretend the crises in the financial and housing sectors will go away on their own. Although a storm is already raging, the administration is not setting much aside for a rainy day. The IMF recently predicted potential bank sector write-downs of $2.2 trillion globally, perhaps half of that in the United States. Nouriel Roubini (NYU) suggests $3.6 trillion. Any such loss would leave the administration with a choice: borrow even more to fill the holes, or watch tax revenue shrivel up as the financial sector crumbles and the economy asphyxiates. If they continue to borrow, at some point we will test the limits of the world's willingness to lend and call into question America's status as a financial safehaven. Higher interest rates will then make a bad situation worse.
I can't say for certain that this is what is scaring the bond market. But I know it's what's scaring me.
Letter to Mom Expanded
Recently I posted a comment on my blog which made my mother concerned. I made a joke about not choosing your relatives and perhaps your politics. I clarified my comment(which I have taken out of my blog) by saying I was trying to make a joke, but felt afterwards it was taken personally. Here is part of that letter to Mom plus my expanded thoughts added on:
This blog is for the exploration of political issues in general. It is also used by Darrel for the thoughtsfromwisconsin.podbean.com podcast. The articles have a decidedly liberal slant. Now to the answer of the "choosing your politics" question.
The question was asked recently "How did you arrive at your political beliefs?" It has a lot to do with what you been exposed to as you grow up. Freedom is a highly philosophical question. How free are we to be really who and what we want to be? I would argue that we are not 100-percent free to pick our political views. Take radio for instance. That has a right-wing flavor. To work in that organization, a person couldn't even mention that they found a http://www.truthout.org/, http://www.commondreams.org/ or http://www.move.org/ article interesting. To a certain extent, growing up listening to Nina Simone,Cat Stevens, the Mamas and the Papas, having your parents be devastated by the death of Bobby and JFK, that has an effect on a child growing up and the person he or she ultimately is. My present Einsteinian view of God is no accident either. The purpose of parenting it to try to mold your children to be the best people possible, and let them fly away from the nest when they are ready. 100-percent independence and freethought is a myth I believe, because we are all so highly interdependent. That said, I believe that Democrats have more to say than Republicans and that I am very proud with the way I was brought up, with loving and caring parents with a great brother and sister. I would much rather watch MSNBC than FOX, I like Bill Moyers, I think Dan Rather is great. I don't like Rush Limbaugh and gag at cookie-cutter Republicans just following the money trail without human compassion. I watched the CPAC conference on CSPAN with curiousity but it was tough not to turn the channel. I'm prochoice and anti-war. I like the late Paul Wellstone and I admire Russ Feingold and Mario Cuomo. I like the mind of Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins. I think Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett are brave. I'm closer to socialism than facisism. I could go on and on. I like musicians better than bankers. etc etc. This is the person who I am and I cannot change the basic core of who I am. I like Martin Sheen and would agree with his quote:
"And there are so many people in the third world suffering so horribly right now, and we are so focused on ourselves and our culture that a lot of things are showing up in our culture that are making it impossible for us to focus on others. We're so self-focused." If you are asking what my politics is, it is left of center, more with the creative people rather than the managers. I've never followed the trail of money and "played the game" for a better salary. I'm just happy being myself, and I hope people respect the fact that I don't always "play the game."
I also like pacifism, which most of my friends vociferiously dispute. I like Gandhi quotes like:
A 'No' uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a 'Yes' merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble. Mohandas Gandhi A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave. Mohandas Gandhi A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes. Mohandas Gandhi A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act. Mohandas Gandhi A nation's culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people. Mohandas Gandhi A policy is a temporary creed liable to be changed, but while it holds good it has got to be pursued with apostolic zeal. Mohandas Gandhi A principle is the expression of perfection, and as imperfect beings like us cannot practise perfection, we devise every moment limits of its compromise in practice. Mohandas Gandhi A religion that takes no account of practical affairs and does not help to solve them is no religion. Mohandas Gandhi A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history. Mohandas Gandhi A vow is a purely religious act which cannot be taken in a fit of passion. It can be taken only with a mind purified and composed and with God as witness. Mohandas Gandhi A weak man is just by accident. A strong but non-violent man is unjust by accident. Mohandas Gandhi Action expresses priorities. Mohandas Gandhi Action is no less necessary than thought to the instinctive tendencies of the human frame. Mohandas Gandhi All compromise is based on give and take, but there can be no give and take on fundamentals. Any compromise on mere fundamentals is a surrender. For it is all give and no take. Mohandas Gandhi All the religions of the world, while they may differ in other respects, unitedly proclaim that nothing lives in this world but Truth. Mohandas Gandhi Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well. Mohandas Gandhi Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest. Mohandas Gandhi An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it. Mohandas Gandhi An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind. Mohandas Gandhi An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching. Mohandas Gandhi An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so. Mohandas Gandhi Anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding. Mohandas Gandhi Anger is the enemy of non-violence and pride is a monster that swallows it up. Mohandas Gandhi Are creeds such simple things like the clothes which a man can change at will and put on at will? Creeds are such for which people live for ages and ages. Mohandas Gandhi As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world - that is the myth of the atomic age - as in being able to remake ourselves. Mohandas Gandhi Be the change that you want to see in the world. Mohandas Gandhi Before the throne of the Almighty, man will be judged not by his acts but by his intentions. For God alone reads our hearts. Mohandas Gandhi But for my faith in God, I should have been a raving maniac. Mohandas Gandhi Capital as such is not evil; it is its wrong use that is evil. Capital in some form or other will always be needed. Mohandas Gandhi Commonsense is the realised sense of proportion. Mohandas Gandhi Confession of errors is like a broom which sweeps away the dirt and leaves the surface brighter and clearer. I feel stronger for confession. Mohandas Gandhi Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position. Mohandas Gandhi Culture of the mind must be subservient to the heart. Mohandas Gandhi Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances. Mohandas Gandhi Each one prays to God according to his own light. Mohandas Gandhi Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth. Mohandas Gandhi Every formula of every religion has in this age of reason, to submit to the acid test of reason and universal assent. Mohandas Gandhi Everyone who wills can hear the inner voice. It is within everyone. Mohandas Gandhi Faith is not something to grasp, it is a state to grow into. Mohandas Gandhi Faith... must be enforced by reason... when faith becomes blind it dies. Mohandas Gandhi Fear has its use but cowardice has none. Mohandas Gandhi Fear of death makes us devoid both of valour and religion. For want of valour is want of religious faith. Mohandas Gandhi First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. Mohandas Gandhi For me every ruler is alien that defies public opinion. Mohandas Gandhi Freedom is never dear at any price. It is the breath of life. What would a man not pay for living? Mohandas Gandhi Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. Mohandas Gandhi Gentleness, self-sacrifice and generosity are the exclusive possession of no one race or religion. Mohandas Gandhi Glory lies in the attempt to reach one's goal and not in reaching it. Mohandas Gandhi God is, even though the whole world deny him. Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self-sustained. Mohandas Gandhi God sometimes does try to the uttermost those whom he wishes to bless. Mohandas Gandhi God, as Truth, has been for me a treasure beyond price. May He be so to every one of us. Mohandas Gandhi Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. Mohandas Gandhi Healthy discontent is the prelude to progress. Mohandas Gandhi Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress. Mohandas Gandhi I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill. Mohandas Gandhi I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers. Mohandas Gandhi I believe in the fundamental truth of all great religions of the world. Mohandas Gandhi I believe that a man is the strongest soldier for daring to die unarmed. Mohandas Gandhi I claim that human mind or human society is not divided into watertight compartments called social, political and religious. All act and react upon one another. Mohandas Gandhi I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough to confess my errors and to retrace my steps. Mohandas Gandhi I do all the evil I can before I learn to shun it? Is it not enough to know the evil to shun it? If not, we should be sincere enough to admit that we love evil too well to give it up. Mohandas Gandhi I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following. Mohandas Gandhi I have also seen children successfully surmounting the effects of an evil inheritance. That is due to purity being an inherent attribute of the soul. Mohandas Gandhi I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and Non-violence are as old as the hills. All I have done is to try experiments in both on as vast a scale as I could. Mohandas Gandhi I have worshipped woman as the living embodiment of the spirit of service and sacrifice. Mohandas Gandhi I know, to banish anger altogether from one's breast is a difficult task. It cannot be achieved through pure personal effort. It can be done only by God's grace. Mohandas Gandhi I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. Mohandas Gandhi I look only to the good qualities of men. Not being faultless myself, I won't presume to probe into the faults of others. Mohandas Gandhi I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent. Mohandas Gandhi I reject any religious doctrine that does not appeal to reason and is in conflict with morality. Mohandas Gandhi I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people. Mohandas Gandhi I will far rather see the race of man extinct than that we should become less than beasts by making the noblest of God's creation, woman, the object of our lust. Mohandas Gandhi I would heartily welcome the union of East and West provided it is not based on brute force. Mohandas Gandhi If co-operation is a duty, I hold that non-co-operation also under certain conditions is equally a duty. Mohandas Gandhi If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide. Mohandas Gandhi If patience is worth anything, it must endure to the end of time. And a living faith will last in the midst of the blackest storm. Mohandas Gandhi If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children. Mohandas Gandhi Imitation is the sincerest flattery. Mohandas Gandhi
My whole life may be an intense battle to show people who I really am.
I close with this comment on the meaning of beauty by Margaret Lathrop:
"There is at once a subtlety and a boldness, hyperbole and nuanced phrasing, chaos and order about this creation, all blended into a glorious profusion of color and scent and sound that, taken as a whole, constitutes the essence of beauty itself."
Mom I sincerely hope we continue this conversation so that we can clarify where we both stand.
This blog is for the exploration of political issues in general. It is also used by Darrel for the thoughtsfromwisconsin.podbean.com podcast. The articles have a decidedly liberal slant. Now to the answer of the "choosing your politics" question.
The question was asked recently "How did you arrive at your political beliefs?" It has a lot to do with what you been exposed to as you grow up. Freedom is a highly philosophical question. How free are we to be really who and what we want to be? I would argue that we are not 100-percent free to pick our political views. Take radio for instance. That has a right-wing flavor. To work in that organization, a person couldn't even mention that they found a http://www.truthout.org/, http://www.commondreams.org/ or http://www.move.org/ article interesting. To a certain extent, growing up listening to Nina Simone,Cat Stevens, the Mamas and the Papas, having your parents be devastated by the death of Bobby and JFK, that has an effect on a child growing up and the person he or she ultimately is. My present Einsteinian view of God is no accident either. The purpose of parenting it to try to mold your children to be the best people possible, and let them fly away from the nest when they are ready. 100-percent independence and freethought is a myth I believe, because we are all so highly interdependent. That said, I believe that Democrats have more to say than Republicans and that I am very proud with the way I was brought up, with loving and caring parents with a great brother and sister. I would much rather watch MSNBC than FOX, I like Bill Moyers, I think Dan Rather is great. I don't like Rush Limbaugh and gag at cookie-cutter Republicans just following the money trail without human compassion. I watched the CPAC conference on CSPAN with curiousity but it was tough not to turn the channel. I'm prochoice and anti-war. I like the late Paul Wellstone and I admire Russ Feingold and Mario Cuomo. I like the mind of Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins. I think Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett are brave. I'm closer to socialism than facisism. I could go on and on. I like musicians better than bankers. etc etc. This is the person who I am and I cannot change the basic core of who I am. I like Martin Sheen and would agree with his quote:
"And there are so many people in the third world suffering so horribly right now, and we are so focused on ourselves and our culture that a lot of things are showing up in our culture that are making it impossible for us to focus on others. We're so self-focused." If you are asking what my politics is, it is left of center, more with the creative people rather than the managers. I've never followed the trail of money and "played the game" for a better salary. I'm just happy being myself, and I hope people respect the fact that I don't always "play the game."
I also like pacifism, which most of my friends vociferiously dispute. I like Gandhi quotes like:
A 'No' uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a 'Yes' merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble. Mohandas Gandhi A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave. Mohandas Gandhi A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes. Mohandas Gandhi A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act. Mohandas Gandhi A nation's culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people. Mohandas Gandhi A policy is a temporary creed liable to be changed, but while it holds good it has got to be pursued with apostolic zeal. Mohandas Gandhi A principle is the expression of perfection, and as imperfect beings like us cannot practise perfection, we devise every moment limits of its compromise in practice. Mohandas Gandhi A religion that takes no account of practical affairs and does not help to solve them is no religion. Mohandas Gandhi A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history. Mohandas Gandhi A vow is a purely religious act which cannot be taken in a fit of passion. It can be taken only with a mind purified and composed and with God as witness. Mohandas Gandhi A weak man is just by accident. A strong but non-violent man is unjust by accident. Mohandas Gandhi Action expresses priorities. Mohandas Gandhi Action is no less necessary than thought to the instinctive tendencies of the human frame. Mohandas Gandhi All compromise is based on give and take, but there can be no give and take on fundamentals. Any compromise on mere fundamentals is a surrender. For it is all give and no take. Mohandas Gandhi All the religions of the world, while they may differ in other respects, unitedly proclaim that nothing lives in this world but Truth. Mohandas Gandhi Always aim at complete harmony of thought and word and deed. Always aim at purifying your thoughts and everything will be well. Mohandas Gandhi Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest. Mohandas Gandhi An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it. Mohandas Gandhi An eye for eye only ends up making the whole world blind. Mohandas Gandhi An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching. Mohandas Gandhi An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so. Mohandas Gandhi Anger and intolerance are the enemies of correct understanding. Mohandas Gandhi Anger is the enemy of non-violence and pride is a monster that swallows it up. Mohandas Gandhi Are creeds such simple things like the clothes which a man can change at will and put on at will? Creeds are such for which people live for ages and ages. Mohandas Gandhi As human beings, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world - that is the myth of the atomic age - as in being able to remake ourselves. Mohandas Gandhi Be the change that you want to see in the world. Mohandas Gandhi Before the throne of the Almighty, man will be judged not by his acts but by his intentions. For God alone reads our hearts. Mohandas Gandhi But for my faith in God, I should have been a raving maniac. Mohandas Gandhi Capital as such is not evil; it is its wrong use that is evil. Capital in some form or other will always be needed. Mohandas Gandhi Commonsense is the realised sense of proportion. Mohandas Gandhi Confession of errors is like a broom which sweeps away the dirt and leaves the surface brighter and clearer. I feel stronger for confession. Mohandas Gandhi Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position. Mohandas Gandhi Culture of the mind must be subservient to the heart. Mohandas Gandhi Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances. Mohandas Gandhi Each one prays to God according to his own light. Mohandas Gandhi Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is the truth. Mohandas Gandhi Every formula of every religion has in this age of reason, to submit to the acid test of reason and universal assent. Mohandas Gandhi Everyone who wills can hear the inner voice. It is within everyone. Mohandas Gandhi Faith is not something to grasp, it is a state to grow into. Mohandas Gandhi Faith... must be enforced by reason... when faith becomes blind it dies. Mohandas Gandhi Fear has its use but cowardice has none. Mohandas Gandhi Fear of death makes us devoid both of valour and religion. For want of valour is want of religious faith. Mohandas Gandhi First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. Mohandas Gandhi For me every ruler is alien that defies public opinion. Mohandas Gandhi Freedom is never dear at any price. It is the breath of life. What would a man not pay for living? Mohandas Gandhi Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. Mohandas Gandhi Gentleness, self-sacrifice and generosity are the exclusive possession of no one race or religion. Mohandas Gandhi Glory lies in the attempt to reach one's goal and not in reaching it. Mohandas Gandhi God is, even though the whole world deny him. Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self-sustained. Mohandas Gandhi God sometimes does try to the uttermost those whom he wishes to bless. Mohandas Gandhi God, as Truth, has been for me a treasure beyond price. May He be so to every one of us. Mohandas Gandhi Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. Mohandas Gandhi Healthy discontent is the prelude to progress. Mohandas Gandhi Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress. Mohandas Gandhi I am prepared to die, but there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill. Mohandas Gandhi I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers. Mohandas Gandhi I believe in the fundamental truth of all great religions of the world. Mohandas Gandhi I believe that a man is the strongest soldier for daring to die unarmed. Mohandas Gandhi I claim that human mind or human society is not divided into watertight compartments called social, political and religious. All act and react upon one another. Mohandas Gandhi I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough to confess my errors and to retrace my steps. Mohandas Gandhi I do all the evil I can before I learn to shun it? Is it not enough to know the evil to shun it? If not, we should be sincere enough to admit that we love evil too well to give it up. Mohandas Gandhi I do not want to foresee the future. I am concerned with taking care of the present. God has given me no control over the moment following. Mohandas Gandhi I have also seen children successfully surmounting the effects of an evil inheritance. That is due to purity being an inherent attribute of the soul. Mohandas Gandhi I have nothing new to teach the world. Truth and Non-violence are as old as the hills. All I have done is to try experiments in both on as vast a scale as I could. Mohandas Gandhi I have worshipped woman as the living embodiment of the spirit of service and sacrifice. Mohandas Gandhi I know, to banish anger altogether from one's breast is a difficult task. It cannot be achieved through pure personal effort. It can be done only by God's grace. Mohandas Gandhi I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. Mohandas Gandhi I look only to the good qualities of men. Not being faultless myself, I won't presume to probe into the faults of others. Mohandas Gandhi I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent. Mohandas Gandhi I reject any religious doctrine that does not appeal to reason and is in conflict with morality. Mohandas Gandhi I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles; but today it means getting along with people. Mohandas Gandhi I will far rather see the race of man extinct than that we should become less than beasts by making the noblest of God's creation, woman, the object of our lust. Mohandas Gandhi I would heartily welcome the union of East and West provided it is not based on brute force. Mohandas Gandhi If co-operation is a duty, I hold that non-co-operation also under certain conditions is equally a duty. Mohandas Gandhi If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide. Mohandas Gandhi If patience is worth anything, it must endure to the end of time. And a living faith will last in the midst of the blackest storm. Mohandas Gandhi If we are to teach real peace in this world, and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with the children. Mohandas Gandhi Imitation is the sincerest flattery. Mohandas Gandhi
My whole life may be an intense battle to show people who I really am.
I close with this comment on the meaning of beauty by Margaret Lathrop:
"There is at once a subtlety and a boldness, hyperbole and nuanced phrasing, chaos and order about this creation, all blended into a glorious profusion of color and scent and sound that, taken as a whole, constitutes the essence of beauty itself."
Mom I sincerely hope we continue this conversation so that we can clarify where we both stand.
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Should Move On Oppose Afghanistan?
by John Nichols
MoveOn.org became a meaningful force in American politics when it emerged as a muscular network of activists that was willing to challenge not just Republicans but Democrats when they were wrong about foreign policy.
Democratic leaders in Congress might have been willing to compromise with the Bush administration on Iraq back in 2002. But MoveOn said "no."
And MoveOn was right.
Now, more than ever, we need MoveOn to remain true to its historic mission.
We need MoveOn to be right about Afghanistan.
For that reason, I certainly hope that Justin Ruben, the new MoveOn executive director, was wrong when he told my colleague Ari Melber that he did not think the group would be letting President Obama know he is wrong to be surging more U.S. troops into Afghanistan.
Here's what Ruben said about MoveOn's agenda for the coming months:
And while MoveOn loudly led the battle against the Iraq "surge," Ruben said he not expect ending the war Afghanistan, where Obama is deploying additional troops, to make the priority list. The "overwhelming priority" is still Iraq, Ruben explains, and while his members are concerned about Afghanistan, they tend to 'differ on what ought to be done about it.'
Unless the MoveOn membership has lost touch with its values and its former allies, I am going to bet that they are a lot more concerned about Afghanistan than Ruben thinks.
Here's what Peace Action says:
Yesterday, President Obama announced his decision to send 17,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan, on the grounds that ‘the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan demands urgent attention'. Peace Action strongly opposes Obama's recent announcement and urges people to immediately call on Obama to choose diplomacy, not escalation.
More troops won't solve our problems in Afghanistan...
We have seen the disastrous consequences of heading into war without a plan in Iraq. We are still mourning American and Iraqi lives lost, and struggling to rehabilitate our economy while spending billions of dollars on war.
Peace Action calls for the ‘rapid withdrawal' of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and a new commitment to a negotiated diplomatic solution involving all regional players.
The Obama Administration should:
-- De-escalate troop levels in Afghanistan and to reject the idea that there is a military solution to the region's problems;
-- Immediately stop military activities that indiscriminately impact civilians such as air and drone strikes;
-- Rapidly withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan;
-- Commit to negotiated diplomatic talks involving all major regional players, including major international peace-keeping bodies;
-- Address the real needs of Afghans, which include health-care, clean water, education, and security.
Here's what the new www.stateupcongress.org network -- which has been organized by the group Win Without War and is backed by TrueMajority.org, the Council for a Livable World, Working Assets, Women's Action for New Directions, Faithful America, 2020 Vision, the American Friends Service Committee, the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, the Unitarian Universalist Association and NETWORK (the National Catholic Social Justice Lobby) -- says:
President Obama has announced a plan to send 17,000 additional troops to Afghanistan this spring and summer. In the absence of a clear mission or exit plan, this troop escalation is more likely to fuel anti-American sentiment and the Taliban-led insurgency than provide any meaningful improvement in security.
Here's the Afghanistan assessment of California Congresswoman Maxine Waters, the driving force behind the Congressional Out of Iraq Caucus:
We don't want to substitute Afghanistan for Iraq.
Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold, the member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee with the steadiest track record of challenging presidents of both parties when they make wrong moves on the international stage, adds:
After years of a failed foreign policy which distracted us from our top national security priority of defeating al Qaeda and its affiliates, I am encouraged by President Obama's focus on Afghanistan where the 9/11 attacks originated. But we need to make sure we have a strategy in place for Afghanistan that will actually work before we commit thousands more U.S. troops. A military escalation without a strategy to address the complex problems facing Afghanistan and the region could alienate the Afghan people and make it much more difficult to achieve our top national security goal of defeating al Qaeda.
Is MoveOn really out of synch with Peace Action, Win Without War and other major anti-war and religious groups and congressional allies of the peace movement?
Let's hope not.
MoveOn.org became a meaningful force in American politics when it emerged as a muscular network of activists that was willing to challenge not just Republicans but Democrats when they were wrong about foreign policy.
Democratic leaders in Congress might have been willing to compromise with the Bush administration on Iraq back in 2002. But MoveOn said "no."
And MoveOn was right.
Now, more than ever, we need MoveOn to remain true to its historic mission.
We need MoveOn to be right about Afghanistan.
For that reason, I certainly hope that Justin Ruben, the new MoveOn executive director, was wrong when he told my colleague Ari Melber that he did not think the group would be letting President Obama know he is wrong to be surging more U.S. troops into Afghanistan.
Here's what Ruben said about MoveOn's agenda for the coming months:
And while MoveOn loudly led the battle against the Iraq "surge," Ruben said he not expect ending the war Afghanistan, where Obama is deploying additional troops, to make the priority list. The "overwhelming priority" is still Iraq, Ruben explains, and while his members are concerned about Afghanistan, they tend to 'differ on what ought to be done about it.'
Unless the MoveOn membership has lost touch with its values and its former allies, I am going to bet that they are a lot more concerned about Afghanistan than Ruben thinks.
Here's what Peace Action says:
Yesterday, President Obama announced his decision to send 17,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan, on the grounds that ‘the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan demands urgent attention'. Peace Action strongly opposes Obama's recent announcement and urges people to immediately call on Obama to choose diplomacy, not escalation.
More troops won't solve our problems in Afghanistan...
We have seen the disastrous consequences of heading into war without a plan in Iraq. We are still mourning American and Iraqi lives lost, and struggling to rehabilitate our economy while spending billions of dollars on war.
Peace Action calls for the ‘rapid withdrawal' of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and a new commitment to a negotiated diplomatic solution involving all regional players.
The Obama Administration should:
-- De-escalate troop levels in Afghanistan and to reject the idea that there is a military solution to the region's problems;
-- Immediately stop military activities that indiscriminately impact civilians such as air and drone strikes;
-- Rapidly withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan;
-- Commit to negotiated diplomatic talks involving all major regional players, including major international peace-keeping bodies;
-- Address the real needs of Afghans, which include health-care, clean water, education, and security.
Here's what the new www.stateupcongress.org network -- which has been organized by the group Win Without War and is backed by TrueMajority.org, the Council for a Livable World, Working Assets, Women's Action for New Directions, Faithful America, 2020 Vision, the American Friends Service Committee, the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, the Unitarian Universalist Association and NETWORK (the National Catholic Social Justice Lobby) -- says:
President Obama has announced a plan to send 17,000 additional troops to Afghanistan this spring and summer. In the absence of a clear mission or exit plan, this troop escalation is more likely to fuel anti-American sentiment and the Taliban-led insurgency than provide any meaningful improvement in security.
Here's the Afghanistan assessment of California Congresswoman Maxine Waters, the driving force behind the Congressional Out of Iraq Caucus:
We don't want to substitute Afghanistan for Iraq.
Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold, the member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee with the steadiest track record of challenging presidents of both parties when they make wrong moves on the international stage, adds:
After years of a failed foreign policy which distracted us from our top national security priority of defeating al Qaeda and its affiliates, I am encouraged by President Obama's focus on Afghanistan where the 9/11 attacks originated. But we need to make sure we have a strategy in place for Afghanistan that will actually work before we commit thousands more U.S. troops. A military escalation without a strategy to address the complex problems facing Afghanistan and the region could alienate the Afghan people and make it much more difficult to achieve our top national security goal of defeating al Qaeda.
Is MoveOn really out of synch with Peace Action, Win Without War and other major anti-war and religious groups and congressional allies of the peace movement?
Let's hope not.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Obama Follows Some of Bush Footsteps
by Helen Thomas
President Barack Obama is already back-tracking on some of his high-road campaign stands and is copying some of former President George W. Bush’s dubious policies.
A couple of weeks ago the Obama administration invoked the controversial state secrets act in the case of Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian native, and four other detainees. They claimed they were victims of the Bush administration’s rendition program under which terrorism suspects were secretly taken to other countries where, they say, they were tortured.
The Bush administration’s position has been that the case should be dismissed because even courtroom discussion of their treatment could threaten national security. When the case was heard earlier this month before a panel of Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals judges sitting in San Francisco, the Obama administration made the same argument.
One judge asked the Justice Department lawyer if the change in administrations had any bearing on the case.
"No, your honor," came the reply.
According to The New York Times, "even the judges on the panel seemed surprised by the administration’s decision to go forward" with the same argument. That’s not "change," the theme of the Obama presidential election campaign. It’s more of the same.
Former President Bush’s legal advisers went out of their way to cleanse new laws of any penalties for White House officials and CIA agents to be tried for abuses of power. A "heavy" among them was newly departed Attorney General Michael Mukasey, the same official who said he couldn’t decide whether the use of waterboarding during interrogation was torture.
And he was a former federal judge!
Another instance of Obama in lock step with his predecessor was the new president’s executive order perpetuating Bush’s "faith-based office in the White House," but failing to provide safeguards against the blurring of separation of church and state.
During his campaign, Obama agreed to uphold the Bush administration program of granting federal aid and contracts to churches, temples and mosques for charitable work but promised to bar religious discrimination in hiring. There was no such prohibition in his directive.
Obama also has backed Bush's last-minute move to allow concealed firearms in national parks. He did so even while a review is underway to see if the firearms measure meets environmental restrictions.
Obama has been true to some of his big pledges by issuing orders to shut down the controversial prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the shameful CIA’s secret prisons abroad -- prisons known for cruel and inhuman abuses of prisoners.
Whether out of charity toward his predecessor or a protective spirit for the reputation of the country, Obama has ruled out a "truth commission" that would re-examine the policies and practices of his predecessor. Instead, the new president insists that we have to "move forward" without assigning blame to those who dishonored us. So much for the much touted Obama campaign slogan of "change." And to think that he once taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School and was head of the Harvard Law Review.
Meantime, two Senate Democrats -- Richard Durbin of Illinois and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island -- are urging the Justice Department to release its findings of an ethics investigation into legal opinions of the Bush administration that paved the way for waterboarding and other harsh questioning of prisoners captured during the "war on terror."
The Bush advisers then serving in the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel -- John C. Yoo and Jay S. Bybee -- wrote memos that narrowed the definition of torture. A separate Yoo memo suggested that those acting under the president’s authority as commander in chief would be immune from prosecution for torture.
Unless Obama acts to clear our name we may forever be identified with the horrors of the American Gulag in our treatment of prisoners.
President Barack Obama is already back-tracking on some of his high-road campaign stands and is copying some of former President George W. Bush’s dubious policies.
A couple of weeks ago the Obama administration invoked the controversial state secrets act in the case of Binyam Mohamed, an Ethiopian native, and four other detainees. They claimed they were victims of the Bush administration’s rendition program under which terrorism suspects were secretly taken to other countries where, they say, they were tortured.
The Bush administration’s position has been that the case should be dismissed because even courtroom discussion of their treatment could threaten national security. When the case was heard earlier this month before a panel of Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals judges sitting in San Francisco, the Obama administration made the same argument.
One judge asked the Justice Department lawyer if the change in administrations had any bearing on the case.
"No, your honor," came the reply.
According to The New York Times, "even the judges on the panel seemed surprised by the administration’s decision to go forward" with the same argument. That’s not "change," the theme of the Obama presidential election campaign. It’s more of the same.
Former President Bush’s legal advisers went out of their way to cleanse new laws of any penalties for White House officials and CIA agents to be tried for abuses of power. A "heavy" among them was newly departed Attorney General Michael Mukasey, the same official who said he couldn’t decide whether the use of waterboarding during interrogation was torture.
And he was a former federal judge!
Another instance of Obama in lock step with his predecessor was the new president’s executive order perpetuating Bush’s "faith-based office in the White House," but failing to provide safeguards against the blurring of separation of church and state.
During his campaign, Obama agreed to uphold the Bush administration program of granting federal aid and contracts to churches, temples and mosques for charitable work but promised to bar religious discrimination in hiring. There was no such prohibition in his directive.
Obama also has backed Bush's last-minute move to allow concealed firearms in national parks. He did so even while a review is underway to see if the firearms measure meets environmental restrictions.
Obama has been true to some of his big pledges by issuing orders to shut down the controversial prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the shameful CIA’s secret prisons abroad -- prisons known for cruel and inhuman abuses of prisoners.
Whether out of charity toward his predecessor or a protective spirit for the reputation of the country, Obama has ruled out a "truth commission" that would re-examine the policies and practices of his predecessor. Instead, the new president insists that we have to "move forward" without assigning blame to those who dishonored us. So much for the much touted Obama campaign slogan of "change." And to think that he once taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School and was head of the Harvard Law Review.
Meantime, two Senate Democrats -- Richard Durbin of Illinois and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island -- are urging the Justice Department to release its findings of an ethics investigation into legal opinions of the Bush administration that paved the way for waterboarding and other harsh questioning of prisoners captured during the "war on terror."
The Bush advisers then serving in the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel -- John C. Yoo and Jay S. Bybee -- wrote memos that narrowed the definition of torture. A separate Yoo memo suggested that those acting under the president’s authority as commander in chief would be immune from prosecution for torture.
Unless Obama acts to clear our name we may forever be identified with the horrors of the American Gulag in our treatment of prisoners.
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