This Land Was Made...

... For You and Me

Today is it. The last full day.

Eight long years of incompetence, arrogance, greedy and dangerous leadership is finally ending.

Unlike some Americans out there who will shed a tear when that final helo flight takes Bush and his family for that last flight to Texas, I am certain that many, many more tears will be shed by those celebrating the fact that the flight is even taking place.

These guys say it best. And they said it yesterday in celebratory joy:



Like so many others, I hope, I wish, that tomorrow begins anew what is best about our nation. A collective striving towards our better angels. A belief that we can and will improve ourselves, our children and our neighbors. A common dream of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And a return to a foreign policy that our last crisis President called for in his first inaugural address:

"the policy of the good neighbor—the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others—the neighbor who respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his agreements in and with a world of neighbors."

Most of all, I want my government to invert what Scott Horton describes as his epitaph for the Bush Years - Augustine's question - "Remota itaque iustitia quid sunt regna nisi magna latrocinia? (If it does not do justice, what is the government but a great criminal enterprise?)" I want our government to return to what government's do - deliver justice.

Then we can truly sing again, "this land was made for you and me."

"Where were we???"

The unbelievably great Driftglass serves up another seminal post.

...and the Moderate, worse than any of them "because he knew what they were and went along with them"

Using a simple clip from that great film, Judgement at Nuremberg, the indictment rings as true today as it did then:

"What was going to be a passing phase became a way of life."

Responsibility without authority is the road to inaction. Likewise, authority without accountability is the road to disaster. Finally, apology without accountability is the rankest of hypocrisy -- and the end of the way of life we say we hold dear.

Without some accounting for the last few years, we have indeed traded a "passing phase" for a new "way of life."

As they say, go read it all...

"This is a farewell kiss, dog..."

"Hey, don't throw those stinky things at my friend!"

(Photo from AFP.)

Those are the words uttered by an Iraqi patriot as he hurled his size 10's at President George W. Bush during another unannounced visit to Iraq.

Describing how he felt after coming under direct attack for the first time in his life, W. noted that "It doesn't bother me."

Iraqis, last seen tossing shoes at another famous politician, were largely unfazed. The shoe tosser, however, is now in the hands of Iraq's "freedom-extractors."



Bush. As popular overseas as he is at home!

"I was horrified..."

One of the deepest, most profound and indeed, most damaging and damning aspects of U.S. policy since 2001 is the embrace of the "dark side" when it comes to fighting terrorism. Despite a long history of using criminal justice, both in the U.S. and around the world, to defeat those who use violent measures to solve their political problems, the U.S. walked into what can only be described as a "twilight zone" in its use of imprisonment and torture against those who fall into its hands. Even today, I can hardly believe that the country established upon the "Rule of Law" so easily abandoned its principles, its morals, and its role as a global leader when it turned its back on the Geneva Convention, international laws against cruelty and its own national laws against torture.

America's treatment of those it has captured on the global "battlefield" in the so-called "War on Terror" is perhaps the single greatest failure of policy made by the Bush Administration.

Scott Horton of Harper's Magazine recently highlighted the documentary Torturing Democracy. This important film, which was produced for PBS and available for airing since this past May, only recently started airing on a few PBS affiliated stations since the network could find "no time slot could be found for the documentary before January 21, 2009."

And no wonder. In a little less than an hour of concise, revelatory and compelling journalism, Torturing Democracy makes clear that the most senior officials of the U.S. government, including the President, Vice President, Secretary of Defense and Attorney General, demanded and approved of interrogations that at a minimum were cruel and almost certainly violated U.S. and international laws. Even more, they broke these fundemental laws all the while asserting that their policies were legal and those performing torture were immunized by President Bush's orders.

We once tried some folks who defended their actions using the very same arguments. It was called the Nuremberg Trials and the International Military Tribunal for the Far East. More than a few of those defendants were hung as a punishment for their crimes.

President-elect Obama repeatedly campaigned on a promise to end the use of torture by the United States. But, he has advising him on intelligence issues, folks that themselves have a questionable commitment to ending this illegal and immoral practice. Nevertheless, President-elect Obama reiterated this commitment in Sunday evening's 60 Minutes interview:

I have said repeatedly that I intend to close Guantanamo, and I will follow through on that. I have said repeatedly that America doesn't torture. And I'm gonna make sure that we don't torture. Those are part and parcel of an effort to regain America's moral stature in the world.

Please, please, please. Watch the documentary. Read the documents. Review the sworn testimony given to the Senate in the past few months. And LEARN what has been done in all our names over the past several years.

Finally, THINK about what happens when our Soldiers are captured, your loved one is "rendered" or your neighbor disappears into a "black site."

Then ACT to hold accountable our officials for their actions, because, if we fail to act, we citizens must hold ourselves accountable for what has been done - in our name.

(Title words spoken by Alberto Mora, former General Counsel of the U.S. Navy)
(Image from McClatchy News Service)