OBAMA TALKS THE TALK BUT DOES NOT WALK THE WALK...ON SECURITY/GITMO/DRONES.
President Obama in his speech today (May 23, 2013) ladled out some pablum for domestic consumption. His soft rhetorical gruel was designed by his script writers to slow the rising anger and anti-Obama sentiment awash in these first several months of Obama’s second term, events which are screwing up his chances to establish his “legacy”. Perhaps he fears he will go own in the history books as the first black president and the first to kill Americans abroad with no trial or independent oversight and little more. The slop was designed to quell the outrage on the left (and in the world) over torture, (which he finally openly admitted), over the shame of Gitmo, where the nation which calls itself the “bastion of freedom” is now force-feeding, 150 shackled, orange-clothed inmates, most of whom, in an eleven year limbo, are known to be innocent. The speech seems an attempt to tamp down national objections to Obama’s illegal, counterproductive drone operation which may perhaps eventually bring our first Black President a conviction in the World Court, and act nicely as a mantlepiece counter-poise to his Nobel Peace prize. These reputation and legacy-staining events (Gitmo, torture, drones) are raising their ugly heads at a the very same time that the American Right is having a field day counting and recounting the juicy Obama “letter and location” scandals: IRA, AP, BENGHAZI.
The “security” speech was apparently designed to help Obama’s personal-security, rather than expiate and further the nation’s security. It clearly attempts to generate the impression of policy revision, but the speech gives no indication of actual changes to be put into action by the Obama Administration. This President seems unable, even now when he will never face another election, to act forcefully and with determination. Though his rhetoric gives the impression of action, it is a illusion, and none should be expected. The pattern of Obama's speechifying has remained consistent through his first term and this one was no different. After digesting the content and reading the transcript, to be sure, I was reminded of the “troop surge embarrassment” in the early months of his first term when the President was talking the talk (of closing down the Iraq war) but could not or would not “walk the walk”. President Obama has a slick ability to rhetorically dress up the store front window, while he continues in his bad old ways in the back room
The President’s wavering is unfortunately something we have become used to here in the US. Perhaps we have accepted his faltering and cautiousness as a happy alternative to the last occupant's foolhardy blundering. But the most offensive lines of his speech are those where he tries to justify the process of illegal assassination and especially of killing our US citizens (now confirmed at four) abroad, Americans, some as young as 16 years of age, who were blown to bits thousand’s of miles from any recognized battlefield. In addition, his killing of thousands of innocent Iraqi, Yemeni, Afghanistanis, children, women, and elderly as unfortunate “collateral damage” can not be legally or morally justified. The drone policies and kill lists are illegal and a regression into our long-ago unsophisticated past when so called “justice” was meted out in secret meetings, with no independent oversight, at the end of a rope, or gun barrel.
In legal terms, Obama’s (and his predecessor’s) policies have taken us back into the colorful but awful “old west”, when characters such as Judge Roy Bean, known as: “the only law west of the Pecos”, used the butt-end of his six-gun as a gavel to call his West Texas kangaroo court to order. In summer session Bean conducted his court under a great live-oak known as the “hangin’ tree”, claiming the cool dappled shade and the thick, horizontal oak-tree limbs (from which a noose could be easily hung), were an ideal venue for carrying out the brief court procedures and the inevitable sentence. At other times he rapped his gavel in his own saloon, convenient for other purposes. But wherever the court met, it was almost axiomatic that any allegation against the accused (horse thief, hornswoggler, cold blooded murderer, etc., etc.) was immediately accepted as a “fact" (apparently, as is the case in Obama’s inner circle). Roy Bean and our legal-scholar president apparently made no distinction between an “allegation” and a confirmed fact. All of the President’s claims listed in his speech, accusations against purported wrongdoers and "terrorists" and all those he has put to death by drone strikes are all simply unsubstantiated allegations, sincce they were never put to the test of independent, unbiased scrutiny. In those past days of our tumultuous west, allegations were often derived and supported based on circumstances such as proximity to a crime scene, or on the “culprit's” sweaty palms, bulging eyes, nervousness, or “swarthy complexion”. For Judge Bean and his jurymen the latter was a sure sign of guilt and it worked for almost any crime, domestic violence, sex offender, rapist, horse thief, arsonist, you name it. It sure made things simple for the posse and the jury. Sadly, beginning under President Bush and now Obama, we have regressed back to the Judge Bean days of justice.
It should be noted here that the West Texas posse, and jury, were one in the same. This body was generally rounded up from the two most popular saloons in town to ride down and capture the alleged perpetrator. Today, we have no mounted posses. In our day a drone “pilot” sits at a console in an air conditioned trailer on the outskirts of an isolated air base in Arizona or New Mexico to chase down modern day US culprits on the far side of the world. No need to saddle up for the modern posse rider. Judge Bean himself rode at the head of many West Texas posse. Bean also took upon himself the responsibility for tying and snugging up a good tight hangman’s knot around the felon's neck. In Washington today, Obama is said to go over his “kill lists” as scrupulously (by himself--with no independent oversight). Once convinced he is right, with no outside independent input on the matter, our President coldly rains down death on people only “suspected” of criminal intent (and any by-standers or relatives which happen to be near). He has also given his imprimatur to other "kills" in what are called by the CIA, “signature strikes”. One such signature strike resulted in the deaths of eight, 10-15 year old Afghan kids who were innocently scavenging wood early in the morning on a hill-top for their parent’s breakfast fire when someone on President Obama’s orders pulled the trigger on a predator drone overhead.
In similar manner, often only minutes after the start of a West Texas trial, Judge Bean would smartly slap the dusty rump of a jumpy cow-pony upon which the “convicted” party sat, his hands tied securely behind his back and his sweaty neck,collared with a rough hemp rope. Bean always referred to the Mexican-style high-rise pommel and cantle on this cow pony as the "witness box”. Of course Bean swore (just like the President) that he was “doin’ justice” too, and there were “no other options”. But at least Bean went through with the formality of a trail..none of that for us today.
Bean's court in the 1880s had no truck with niceties like the accused being able to examine or confront witnesses arrayed against him or her, or the value of a confrontational setting in which both sides, like prosecution and defense, examine evidence to arrive at a more exact approximation of the truth. They never considered to insure the impartiality of witnesses. No one complained about the validity of statements taken from the accused after he or she was threatened with a hot branding iron, punched and kicked around by the jury, or hog-tied and dragged some miles behind a broom-tail pony. One thing the accused in Bean’s day could expect that the individuals on Mr. Obama’s kill lists could not, was a “timely trial”. But both could expect a ghoulish consistent outcome--death by hanging or being blown to bits. But at least the Texans of that era had some semblance of a “trial” and their relatives had a body to put into a pine box for burial.
Again in this case, our President is attempting to snow us by talking the talk, but don't expect him to walk the walk. Gitmo will not close, nor will drone strikes abate. Obama simply has no real desire to invest his political capital-the little he has--. It's too bad, he had great potential to be a transformational president. But it seems, unlike the nation, his best days are past. His big accomplishment, sad to state, may be that he was the first black man elected to the office and the first to bring us back to Judge Roy Bean style western justice.
Get the picture?
rjk
Saturday, May 25, 2013
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
MAY 14, OBAMA'S DIES HORRIBILIS (HORRIBLE DAY)
MAY 14th---OBAMA'S PERFECT STORM or “Dies Horribilis”
Today the refuse hit the fan for Mr.Obama. The President has weathered bad news before. Obama and his birth certificate, his failed promise to close Guantanamo, his minimalist health care solution---still to be implemented, the troop surges and troop deadlines, the drone attacks, the failure to generate gun legislation after the Sandy Hook massacre, his dependency and expansion of distasteful and illegal Bush policies, the assassination of American citizens abroad, and earlier, the Great Recession, unemployment, the economy, Iran, Syria, the Guantanamo hunger strike, etc. etc. etc.
But today, Obama's dies horribilis, the fecal matter hit the fan, when the IRS scandal surfaced (the revelation that IRS was investigating the tax returns of selected groups based on their political leanings), on top of the AP scandal (secret subpoena of AP reporter’s telephone and fax records, ostensibly due to “serious leaks” regarding unidentified foreign policy issues ),on top of the Benghazi scandal, and to top it off, the embarrassing capture and expulsion by Russia of an all-too-obvious-CIA spy (captured wearing a silly blonde wig). The expulsion underscored the fact that the CIA under Obama is more a secret paramilitary organization, rather than an up-to-snuff intelligence gathering arm of the USA. And all these events fell on one day on the White House like the massive building collapse in Bangladesh.
As a result, none of us have left any spare “Obama forgiveness”...or “look-the-other-way-ability” for Obama and his obviously over the top imperialized but inept government. Even the silly charge of Congresswoman Michelle Bachman that the “President costs the nation a billion dollars a year”. That he "employs a dog walker" at taxpayer expense. And employs "five chefs" on Air Force One. These are charges which seem to have “legs”, striking a chord within the public consciousness. Perhaps, it is the public realization that, as it seems now, Mr.Obama is not going to do any better than he has so far. That his presidency is at an end, yet it has some 1300 days and more to go. That his great achievement was a personal one....being the first black president...but he will achieve little to heal his nation. Or perhaps, it has to do with the generalized suffering of our citizenry, who struggle just to put gas in their automobile tanks, stretch to create enough spare time for a second job and search the dark corners of their purses to come up with the necessary cash to buy needed medications. And it all happened within a few months of the President’s great reelection. What happened? Voter and citizen fatigue?
It seems today, some 1300 days before a new election, we as a people no longer believe the Obama myth. To change that public state of mind the President is going to actually have to do something--not half heartedly, or piecemeal, but do something successfully for the nation. Just one thing. To renew our faith in him.
Get the picture?
rjk
Today the refuse hit the fan for Mr.Obama. The President has weathered bad news before. Obama and his birth certificate, his failed promise to close Guantanamo, his minimalist health care solution---still to be implemented, the troop surges and troop deadlines, the drone attacks, the failure to generate gun legislation after the Sandy Hook massacre, his dependency and expansion of distasteful and illegal Bush policies, the assassination of American citizens abroad, and earlier, the Great Recession, unemployment, the economy, Iran, Syria, the Guantanamo hunger strike, etc. etc. etc.
But today, Obama's dies horribilis, the fecal matter hit the fan, when the IRS scandal surfaced (the revelation that IRS was investigating the tax returns of selected groups based on their political leanings), on top of the AP scandal (secret subpoena of AP reporter’s telephone and fax records, ostensibly due to “serious leaks” regarding unidentified foreign policy issues ),on top of the Benghazi scandal, and to top it off, the embarrassing capture and expulsion by Russia of an all-too-obvious-CIA spy (captured wearing a silly blonde wig). The expulsion underscored the fact that the CIA under Obama is more a secret paramilitary organization, rather than an up-to-snuff intelligence gathering arm of the USA. And all these events fell on one day on the White House like the massive building collapse in Bangladesh.
As a result, none of us have left any spare “Obama forgiveness”...or “look-the-other-way-ability” for Obama and his obviously over the top imperialized but inept government. Even the silly charge of Congresswoman Michelle Bachman that the “President costs the nation a billion dollars a year”. That he "employs a dog walker" at taxpayer expense. And employs "five chefs" on Air Force One. These are charges which seem to have “legs”, striking a chord within the public consciousness. Perhaps, it is the public realization that, as it seems now, Mr.Obama is not going to do any better than he has so far. That his presidency is at an end, yet it has some 1300 days and more to go. That his great achievement was a personal one....being the first black president...but he will achieve little to heal his nation. Or perhaps, it has to do with the generalized suffering of our citizenry, who struggle just to put gas in their automobile tanks, stretch to create enough spare time for a second job and search the dark corners of their purses to come up with the necessary cash to buy needed medications. And it all happened within a few months of the President’s great reelection. What happened? Voter and citizen fatigue?
It seems today, some 1300 days before a new election, we as a people no longer believe the Obama myth. To change that public state of mind the President is going to actually have to do something--not half heartedly, or piecemeal, but do something successfully for the nation. Just one thing. To renew our faith in him.
Get the picture?
rjk
Sunday, May 12, 2013
WEST TEXAS FERTILIZER BLAST: NO REGULATIONS, NO GOOD
WEST TEXAS BLAST:TRAGIC REMINDER OF EVILS OF NO REGULATION POLICY
The terrible ammonium-nitrate fueled blast on April 17, 2013, at a fertilizer plant just outside of West, Texas registered a 2.1 magnitude on the earthquake scale and blew out windows in Abbott, Texas 7 miles away. The massive blast and fireball killed fourteen, wounded 200, flattened a good part of the surrounding city and left a 90-foot-diameter smoldering crater. The event, in a town where “fire regulations” are cuss words, is a tragic example of the results of a State’s laissais faire, so-called “business friendly” policy taken to absurd lengths. The events in West make it apparent that living in a “business friendly” zone may marginally increase profits, more money will flow into the hands of the owners, but it can be dangerous (or fatal) to one’s health and well being. Similar policies emanating from the Ayn Randian myths and fuzzy thinking of Republican politicians which resulted in the elimination of long-standing federal banking regulations by the US Senate and House of Representatives (i.e. Glass Steagal Act) clearly fueled the devastating financial disaster of 2008--the Great Recession---which had tragic ECONOMIC consequences for the nation as a whole, circumstances which we all continue to struggle with, now five years later. The tragic blast in West Texas is a sad and tragic reminder of just how dangerous, stupid, and counter-productive the anti-government, anti-regulation, free-for-all, 19th-century-style capitalism is to our nation’s health and economic well-being.
Learning about the blast, one was first saddened at the widespread death and destruction, which some estimate at more than $100 million dollars, but later shocked by the revelation that the dangerous fertilizer plant (producing and storing some 270 tons of the same explosive--ammonium nitrate--that Timothy Mc Viegh used--two tons of the stuff--in 1995 in the Oklahoma City bombing to blow the side off the Murrah building and kill 168 people) was, unguarded, subject to thefts and vandalism, poorly regulated, without outside independent inspections (last inspected in 1988), and all it's safety and maintenance policies left strictly to the whim of the West Fertilizer Company executives who had a financial motive to limit them. Recent information also indicate that the plant executives unwisely permitted the storage of agricultural grains and seeds in bins in proximity to storage areas for flammable ammonium nitrate. The company was originally known as the Adair Seed Company, so seeds and grains were originally stored on site. Federal regulations warn farmers about storing agricultural grains, seeds and hay. If they are inadvertently dampened, biological decay (fermentation) can generate enough heat to cause spontaneous combustion. It is known that the initial fire at the site may have involved the seed bins. Furthermore,the State of Texas which, in its pursuit of business opportunity has few or no zoning laws and thus saw fit to ignore the fact that the plant was situated near residential areas, homes, next to the West Middle School, an apartment building and other occupied buildings. The town of West and the County of McClennon in which the plant is located, proudly boast that they have no fire regulations (an apparent come-on for businesses) and the State officially prohibits towns from enacting such legislation in the State's unwise pursuit of anti-government-intervention purity.
The N Y Times in a May 10 2013, print edition article entitled: “After Plant Explosion, Texas Remains Wary of Regulation” states: "Texas has always prided itself on its free-market posture. It is the only state that does not require companies to contribute to workers’ compensation coverage. It boasts the largest city in the country, Houston, with no zoning laws. It does not have a state fire code, and it prohibits smaller counties from having such codes. Some Texas counties even cite the lack of local fire codes as a reason for companies to move there.
But Texas has also had the nation’s highest number of workplace fatalities — more than 400 annually — for much of the past decade. Fires and explosions at Texas’ more than 1,300 chemical and industrial plants have cost as much in property damage as those in all the other states combined for the five years ending in May 2012. Compared with Illinois, which has the nation’s second-largest number of high-risk sites, more than 950, but tighter fire and safety rules, Texas had more than three times the number of accidents, four times the number of injuries and deaths, and 300 times the property damage costs.” From:NY Times, May 10, 2013, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: After Plant Explosion,Texas Remains Wary of Regulation.
The “no-regulation” culture and raw capitalism of these modern times has led to the tragic loss of life and property in West Texas and the economic tragedy of the Great Recession, but unfortunately both events have brought no soul searching or revision of thought or revised policies. The State of Texas has 44 other fertilizer plants scattered over its counties, many of them literal time bombs located right in the center of some unsuspecting community. Yet the disproved policies of “no regulation” remain unaltered in the minds of the populace and their less-than-astute policy-maker class. In the larger realm, the Federal officials know well and fully that lax banking laws and toothless financial regulations are an open invitation to another banking or stock bubble which can again devastate the financial sector and perhaps cost the taxpayer more trillions in bailout money. But all of our leaders look the other way, ignoring the piles of explosive ammonium nitrate and the economic Mount Soma upon which we all sit, mumbling their outdated, disproved shibboleths of “pure capitalism” over and over to reassure themselves, of their free market purity and unwilling to admit that Soma is a Vesuvius waiting to erupt.
Get the picture?
rjk
------------------------
The terrible ammonium-nitrate fueled blast on April 17, 2013, at a fertilizer plant just outside of West, Texas registered a 2.1 magnitude on the earthquake scale and blew out windows in Abbott, Texas 7 miles away. The massive blast and fireball killed fourteen, wounded 200, flattened a good part of the surrounding city and left a 90-foot-diameter smoldering crater. The event, in a town where “fire regulations” are cuss words, is a tragic example of the results of a State’s laissais faire, so-called “business friendly” policy taken to absurd lengths. The events in West make it apparent that living in a “business friendly” zone may marginally increase profits, more money will flow into the hands of the owners, but it can be dangerous (or fatal) to one’s health and well being. Similar policies emanating from the Ayn Randian myths and fuzzy thinking of Republican politicians which resulted in the elimination of long-standing federal banking regulations by the US Senate and House of Representatives (i.e. Glass Steagal Act) clearly fueled the devastating financial disaster of 2008--the Great Recession---which had tragic ECONOMIC consequences for the nation as a whole, circumstances which we all continue to struggle with, now five years later. The tragic blast in West Texas is a sad and tragic reminder of just how dangerous, stupid, and counter-productive the anti-government, anti-regulation, free-for-all, 19th-century-style capitalism is to our nation’s health and economic well-being.
Learning about the blast, one was first saddened at the widespread death and destruction, which some estimate at more than $100 million dollars, but later shocked by the revelation that the dangerous fertilizer plant (producing and storing some 270 tons of the same explosive--ammonium nitrate--that Timothy Mc Viegh used--two tons of the stuff--in 1995 in the Oklahoma City bombing to blow the side off the Murrah building and kill 168 people) was, unguarded, subject to thefts and vandalism, poorly regulated, without outside independent inspections (last inspected in 1988), and all it's safety and maintenance policies left strictly to the whim of the West Fertilizer Company executives who had a financial motive to limit them. Recent information also indicate that the plant executives unwisely permitted the storage of agricultural grains and seeds in bins in proximity to storage areas for flammable ammonium nitrate. The company was originally known as the Adair Seed Company, so seeds and grains were originally stored on site. Federal regulations warn farmers about storing agricultural grains, seeds and hay. If they are inadvertently dampened, biological decay (fermentation) can generate enough heat to cause spontaneous combustion. It is known that the initial fire at the site may have involved the seed bins. Furthermore,the State of Texas which, in its pursuit of business opportunity has few or no zoning laws and thus saw fit to ignore the fact that the plant was situated near residential areas, homes, next to the West Middle School, an apartment building and other occupied buildings. The town of West and the County of McClennon in which the plant is located, proudly boast that they have no fire regulations (an apparent come-on for businesses) and the State officially prohibits towns from enacting such legislation in the State's unwise pursuit of anti-government-intervention purity.
The N Y Times in a May 10 2013, print edition article entitled: “After Plant Explosion, Texas Remains Wary of Regulation” states: "Texas has always prided itself on its free-market posture. It is the only state that does not require companies to contribute to workers’ compensation coverage. It boasts the largest city in the country, Houston, with no zoning laws. It does not have a state fire code, and it prohibits smaller counties from having such codes. Some Texas counties even cite the lack of local fire codes as a reason for companies to move there.
But Texas has also had the nation’s highest number of workplace fatalities — more than 400 annually — for much of the past decade. Fires and explosions at Texas’ more than 1,300 chemical and industrial plants have cost as much in property damage as those in all the other states combined for the five years ending in May 2012. Compared with Illinois, which has the nation’s second-largest number of high-risk sites, more than 950, but tighter fire and safety rules, Texas had more than three times the number of accidents, four times the number of injuries and deaths, and 300 times the property damage costs.” From:NY Times, May 10, 2013, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: After Plant Explosion,Texas Remains Wary of Regulation.
The “no-regulation” culture and raw capitalism of these modern times has led to the tragic loss of life and property in West Texas and the economic tragedy of the Great Recession, but unfortunately both events have brought no soul searching or revision of thought or revised policies. The State of Texas has 44 other fertilizer plants scattered over its counties, many of them literal time bombs located right in the center of some unsuspecting community. Yet the disproved policies of “no regulation” remain unaltered in the minds of the populace and their less-than-astute policy-maker class. In the larger realm, the Federal officials know well and fully that lax banking laws and toothless financial regulations are an open invitation to another banking or stock bubble which can again devastate the financial sector and perhaps cost the taxpayer more trillions in bailout money. But all of our leaders look the other way, ignoring the piles of explosive ammonium nitrate and the economic Mount Soma upon which we all sit, mumbling their outdated, disproved shibboleths of “pure capitalism” over and over to reassure themselves, of their free market purity and unwilling to admit that Soma is a Vesuvius waiting to erupt.
Get the picture?
rjk
------------------------
Monday, May 6, 2013
GITMO: CLOSE IT, SEND PRISONERS TO BUSH RANCH!
GITMO, BUSH AND CHENEY CRIME, MAKE THEM PAY
A solution to the problem of prisoners at Gitmo just came to me as I listened to a disquieting review on NPR today of the present conditions at our USA Guantanamo Gulag. I thought, “Hey, wait, it was Bush and Cheney's big brain storm to set up Guantanamo”. (But sadly I must add here that Mr.Obama, is also culpable. He was elected specifically to right these wrongs, but has been sitting on his long and gracefully tapering fingers for four long years and not lifted one of his fine digits to alter this situation.) They (the Bush crowd) and their henchmen also decided to use torture to extract information from the detainees so that that any evidence obtained from them was ultimately inadmissible in any court in the world. They also had the great idea to gather information by doling out cash to tribal chieftains, and other locals to make sweeps across Iraq and Afghanistan to arrest “suspicious characters” who were then turned over to and interrogated by the CIA for information. Some were tortured. It is not hard to imagine how readily and likely corruption and malfeasance would occur under such circumstances, with the result that many innocent people were swept up for no good reason except the CIA cash. Bush and Cheney and their underlings made no provisions to ameliorate this problem and innocents were detained, tortured and imprisoned. Now after all these years, these men remain incarcerated, under the harshest conditions, but worse, they are imprisoned with no charges, no habeus corpus, no trials, some having no idea why they were arrested, and no idea when or if they will face their accusers, or be tried, convicted, or released---if ever. Their despair has led them to take part in a hunger strike.
All in all, it is Bush and Cheney who are the war criminals responsible for this fiasco, the war, the massive costs, the hundreds of thousands of deaths, and the pain and suffering of an entire nation as we now face the ugly problem of deciding what to do both legally and morally with these men, the vast majority of whom, have been deemed innocent of any crime, and who have been incarcerated now for a up to a decade. At present, the camp is faced with another problem---a massive prisoner hunger strike, which is being “handled” by the military by brutally force-feeding inmates. By all international standards, forced feeding is just another form of torture.
Like George Bush's unnecessary, counter-productive and expensive wars which will cost the nation three trillion dollars when all is said and done....his concept of incarcerating prisoners has been revealed to be unbelievably expensive too. It is common knowledge now that each prisoner (171 of them) costs the taxpayer annually nearly a million dollars (some estimate the cost more precisely as between $800,000 to $900,000). The average prisoner in a state-side penitentiary costs only 1/50 of that amount, or about $20,000 to incarcerate an individual for a year. Why the huge disparity? The hot climate and need for continuous air conditioning, is one, as well as the fact that because the prison camp was situated purposely in an isolated and secretive place on another nation's island, a nation with which we have no trade relations, so we can not staff the camp or supply it locally. The Bush team knew that the gulag they were organizing was going to function outside of our national laws, thus it had to be located outside of US legal jurisdiction. And perhaps considering what went on there, Bush and Cheney did not want anyone looking over the shoulder of the camp commander. However, that reasoning and decision was a costly one. To service the staff and prisoners in this isolated guglag far from the mainland, every bit of fuel, water, food and even toilet paper must be flown in or transported by ship. The costs are astronomical for a prison camp.
My thinking is this, since Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney generated the underlying causes and the specific circumstances of this mess, they should be held fiscally responsible. The majority did not vote for Bush (the first time), the majority of our citizenry would not have agreed to go to war in Iraq, were they not lied to. The majority certainly did not agree to torture or dream up the disaster of Gitmo. It was Cheney and Bush who were the creators and architects of this mess. Perhaps we should send the problem in the form of a line of shackled prisoners to their homes and ranches where the Cheneys and Bushes would host these men. In lieu of that, I suggest a tax on the Bush and Cheney's estates to help pay for the up-keep of these men on the island where THEY decided they should go. They could well afford it, profiting on the war they way they did. Gitmo is their mess and their shame. They should pay.
Perhaps if we saddle the perpetrators with the costs of their perfidy, future inhabitants of our White House (and Blair House) might be much more circumspect about leading a nation into unnecessary wars, torturing prisoners so we can not try them, leaving us with a bill of near two hundred million dollars a year with no end in sight, and staining the nation's honor with epithet of “torturer” and “human rights violator”.
Get the picture?
rjk
A solution to the problem of prisoners at Gitmo just came to me as I listened to a disquieting review on NPR today of the present conditions at our USA Guantanamo Gulag. I thought, “Hey, wait, it was Bush and Cheney's big brain storm to set up Guantanamo”. (But sadly I must add here that Mr.Obama, is also culpable. He was elected specifically to right these wrongs, but has been sitting on his long and gracefully tapering fingers for four long years and not lifted one of his fine digits to alter this situation.) They (the Bush crowd) and their henchmen also decided to use torture to extract information from the detainees so that that any evidence obtained from them was ultimately inadmissible in any court in the world. They also had the great idea to gather information by doling out cash to tribal chieftains, and other locals to make sweeps across Iraq and Afghanistan to arrest “suspicious characters” who were then turned over to and interrogated by the CIA for information. Some were tortured. It is not hard to imagine how readily and likely corruption and malfeasance would occur under such circumstances, with the result that many innocent people were swept up for no good reason except the CIA cash. Bush and Cheney and their underlings made no provisions to ameliorate this problem and innocents were detained, tortured and imprisoned. Now after all these years, these men remain incarcerated, under the harshest conditions, but worse, they are imprisoned with no charges, no habeus corpus, no trials, some having no idea why they were arrested, and no idea when or if they will face their accusers, or be tried, convicted, or released---if ever. Their despair has led them to take part in a hunger strike.
All in all, it is Bush and Cheney who are the war criminals responsible for this fiasco, the war, the massive costs, the hundreds of thousands of deaths, and the pain and suffering of an entire nation as we now face the ugly problem of deciding what to do both legally and morally with these men, the vast majority of whom, have been deemed innocent of any crime, and who have been incarcerated now for a up to a decade. At present, the camp is faced with another problem---a massive prisoner hunger strike, which is being “handled” by the military by brutally force-feeding inmates. By all international standards, forced feeding is just another form of torture.
Like George Bush's unnecessary, counter-productive and expensive wars which will cost the nation three trillion dollars when all is said and done....his concept of incarcerating prisoners has been revealed to be unbelievably expensive too. It is common knowledge now that each prisoner (171 of them) costs the taxpayer annually nearly a million dollars (some estimate the cost more precisely as between $800,000 to $900,000). The average prisoner in a state-side penitentiary costs only 1/50 of that amount, or about $20,000 to incarcerate an individual for a year. Why the huge disparity? The hot climate and need for continuous air conditioning, is one, as well as the fact that because the prison camp was situated purposely in an isolated and secretive place on another nation's island, a nation with which we have no trade relations, so we can not staff the camp or supply it locally. The Bush team knew that the gulag they were organizing was going to function outside of our national laws, thus it had to be located outside of US legal jurisdiction. And perhaps considering what went on there, Bush and Cheney did not want anyone looking over the shoulder of the camp commander. However, that reasoning and decision was a costly one. To service the staff and prisoners in this isolated guglag far from the mainland, every bit of fuel, water, food and even toilet paper must be flown in or transported by ship. The costs are astronomical for a prison camp.
My thinking is this, since Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney generated the underlying causes and the specific circumstances of this mess, they should be held fiscally responsible. The majority did not vote for Bush (the first time), the majority of our citizenry would not have agreed to go to war in Iraq, were they not lied to. The majority certainly did not agree to torture or dream up the disaster of Gitmo. It was Cheney and Bush who were the creators and architects of this mess. Perhaps we should send the problem in the form of a line of shackled prisoners to their homes and ranches where the Cheneys and Bushes would host these men. In lieu of that, I suggest a tax on the Bush and Cheney's estates to help pay for the up-keep of these men on the island where THEY decided they should go. They could well afford it, profiting on the war they way they did. Gitmo is their mess and their shame. They should pay.
Perhaps if we saddle the perpetrators with the costs of their perfidy, future inhabitants of our White House (and Blair House) might be much more circumspect about leading a nation into unnecessary wars, torturing prisoners so we can not try them, leaving us with a bill of near two hundred million dollars a year with no end in sight, and staining the nation's honor with epithet of “torturer” and “human rights violator”.
Get the picture?
rjk
Friday, May 3, 2013
POLLS: USA ISOLATIONIST--NO JUST USING COMMON SENSE
The New York Times ran a piece (April 30, 2013) entitled:“Poll Shows Isolationist Streak in Americans” (Megan Thee-Brenan). But is this really a case of “isolationism”? Or are Americans being more sensible and realistic than the Washington crowd, their accomplices and echo chamber--the press--and the elements of military-industrial-complex many of whom profit from our adventurism abroad.
The Times lead paragraph states: “Americans are exhibiting an isolationist streak, with majorities across party lines decidedly opposed to American intervention in North Korea or Syria, according to the latest New York Times/CBS poll.”
The author supports her claim with these figures:“Sixty-two percent of the public say the United States has no responsibility to do something about the fighting in Syria between government forces and antigovernment groups, while just one-quarter disagree. Likewise, 56 percent say North Korea is a threat that can be contained for now without military action, just 15 percent say the situation requires immediate American action and 21 percent say the North is not a threat at all.” To me that sounds very reasonable.
The Times would like to call that response “isolationism”. Merriam Webster defines isolationism as: “a policy of national isolation by abstention from alliances and other international political and economic relations.” I do not think that definition could remotely Apply to the USA with its more than 900 military bases around the world, millions of men and women under arms, and which is presently fighting major wars in Afghanistan and a secret war in Pakistan, Yemen and parts of Africa, all supported with an earth-girdling Navy and Air Force.
We are not isolationists by any measure. But we are a nation with problems. Our infrastructure and health care system are no longer world class. Today for every three dollars our government takes in in revenue--it spends four. Our national debt equals our annual GDP like some of those nations in Europe we criticize. We are a struggling with an economic depression, with near 8% unemployment, and trying to close down two unnecessary, unpaid-for wars and even today struggling to survive under sequestration and its unimagined and devastating effects. Claiming we may have isolationist tendencies is simply wrong.
Let’s accept the facts. The American public, far from isolationist, simply have digested and understand--perhaps because economic exigencies demand they deal with it each day--the basic facts. We can not afford further unpredictable adventurism abroad. Let’s not call that a “streak of isolationism” but is a fine example of American common sense. We would all be better off with more of that characteristic in Washington and as well in the editor's office at the NY Times.
Get the picture?
rjk
The Times lead paragraph states: “Americans are exhibiting an isolationist streak, with majorities across party lines decidedly opposed to American intervention in North Korea or Syria, according to the latest New York Times/CBS poll.”
The author supports her claim with these figures:“Sixty-two percent of the public say the United States has no responsibility to do something about the fighting in Syria between government forces and antigovernment groups, while just one-quarter disagree. Likewise, 56 percent say North Korea is a threat that can be contained for now without military action, just 15 percent say the situation requires immediate American action and 21 percent say the North is not a threat at all.” To me that sounds very reasonable.
The Times would like to call that response “isolationism”. Merriam Webster defines isolationism as: “a policy of national isolation by abstention from alliances and other international political and economic relations.” I do not think that definition could remotely Apply to the USA with its more than 900 military bases around the world, millions of men and women under arms, and which is presently fighting major wars in Afghanistan and a secret war in Pakistan, Yemen and parts of Africa, all supported with an earth-girdling Navy and Air Force.
We are not isolationists by any measure. But we are a nation with problems. Our infrastructure and health care system are no longer world class. Today for every three dollars our government takes in in revenue--it spends four. Our national debt equals our annual GDP like some of those nations in Europe we criticize. We are a struggling with an economic depression, with near 8% unemployment, and trying to close down two unnecessary, unpaid-for wars and even today struggling to survive under sequestration and its unimagined and devastating effects. Claiming we may have isolationist tendencies is simply wrong.
Let’s accept the facts. The American public, far from isolationist, simply have digested and understand--perhaps because economic exigencies demand they deal with it each day--the basic facts. We can not afford further unpredictable adventurism abroad. Let’s not call that a “streak of isolationism” but is a fine example of American common sense. We would all be better off with more of that characteristic in Washington and as well in the editor's office at the NY Times.
Get the picture?
rjk
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