Obama Trades Our Principles For Cheneyism

By Steve Hynd

A lot of people as writing about Obama's decision to flip-flop on the release of hundreds of photos of abused and tortured prisoners at the hands of the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan. So far, most blog posts on the subject listed at Memeorandum are by wingnuts cock-a-whoop at such an obvious example of the White House doing a backflip into their court. But my friend David Neiwert at Crooks And Liars gets it exactly right in exposing not only Obama's bad decision but their support for it.

[Obama will] now be using up [his] political capital to defend Dick Cheney and his merry band of torturers. Now, that's a lovely prospect, isn't it? I'm sure Cheney will repay him generously for the effort.

It would be nice, though, if someone took the time to point out once again that the very fears about Arab reaction to these photos, and the consequences for our soldiers in the field -- not to mention the radicalizing effect it has, effectively creating future terrorists -- are exactly the main reason why torture doesn't, can't, and never will keep us safe. And why Cheney and Co. utterly failed to actually keep Americans safe, not just during their tenure, but for the foreseeable future.

I have to wonder, along with Neel at Unqualified Offerings, if the any of these supressed, incriminating photos were of new Afghanistan commander Stanley McChrystal's old command at Camp Nama in Iraq, where he condoned and co-operated in abuse and torture from 2003 to 2006. In a law-abiding alternate-dimension Obama administration - i.e. the one we thought we were getting - that would be reason enough to nix McChrystal's appointment, no matter how brilliant a commander he might be. Promoting criminals rather than throwing them in jail is itself an act of criminal complicity, surely. But instead I'm nearly certain the subject won't even come up at his confirmation hearings.

People, you've been sold a pup by the American Tony Blair, as I feared from the very first. We were told to Hope (tm), but instead we've got a neo-interventionist Imperial presidency just as nasty as Bush's, but with a smiley-face mask. As Andrew Sullivan writes:

From extending and deepening the war in Afghanistan, to suppressing evidence of rampant and widespread abuse and torture of prisoners under Bush, to thuggishly threatening the British with intelligence cut-off if they reveal the brutal torture inflicted on Binyam Mohamed, Obama now has new cheer-leaders: Bill Kristol, Michael Goldfarb and Max Boot.

And you know what the worst of it is? I honestly believe that any of the other primary choices offered by the two major parties would have been even worse as occupants of the Oval Office. We don't just need better Dems, we need better alternative parties and a better electoral system which lets those parties stand on an equal footing with the Big Two who co-operate in obstructing third party efforts at every turn.

Comments

[janinsanfran]

It's worth adding to Obama's catalog of adoptions of authoritarian Bush policies that his Justice Department is continuing to argue that it will not admit the respected scholar Tariq Ramadan to the United States. Guess they are afraid of an articulate spokesman for Muslim world ...

[Earl]

...we need better alternative parties and a better electoral system which lets those parties stand on an equal footing with the Big Two who co-operate in obstructing third party efforts at every turn

The best shot, right now, for a "third" party is some sort of libertarian gasbaggery that continues to try to band together after their tea.

I can't think of a reason that I would go there at this point.

Then again, for some reason I still believe in Obama.

[Ron Beasley]

I'm willing to give Obama a break for now. It doesn't mean they won't be released it just has to finish it's journey through the court system and in the end they will probabaly be released. This move was political - he can say he was listening to the military. If the courts decide they must be released and Obama blocks it by fiat then we can be upset.

[geoff]

I've just watched Obama's statement on the WH lawn re the photo's. I'm not sure what I'd have done in his position as the POTUS, likely I'd avoid releasing them, though I think the spin from so-called enemies maybe be equally bad as looking at the awful things. As Steve, or one of his linked to sites, indicated maybe some of the new stuff might incriminate the new military bigwig and get the hero off on the wrong foot with whoever, eh.

Anyway what I thought was most significant about the Obama lawn statement was that he threw the "bad apple" grunts to the dogs again. To par-a-phrase him I think he said that those responsible for the atrocities - he didn't use that word - in the first patch of Kodak moments had been dealt with and he didn't want to repeat it. Add elitist and really mean it to any description of him. Of course he could just have really bad script writers too, eh.

[Ron Beasley]

I agree Geoff, throughing the grunts to the wolves again was a low point. As much as we may not like it politics is important and this was politics pure and simple.

[John Ballard]

I agree with Ron Beasley. Chuck Todd made the same point tucked into the NBC report tonight.
I wish more of his "supporters" would get used to the nuance of Obama's political instincts.

When he changes his mind in response to a constituency he brands his opposition as stubborn, hard-headed and tone-deaf. That constituency in this case is military leadership, one leg of the Republican stool. He's trading a pawn or two for a rook.

(Two cheers for bipartisanship! Tee-hee...)

[Had Enuf]

The Obombaton is another Cheney and Bush rolled into one. His policies are for the most part, no different. He never rolled back a single Bush Whore House policy of David Addington's, nor has he restored RULE OF LAW in the U.S.

so, I have deduced that even as badly wounded as the Gay Old Pedophile party is, they could run anyone they want against a failing Obombaton in the next election, and beat him.

By then, people will have lost most of what they own, most of the nation will have descended into 'foreclosure' and the tent cities will explode into the main means of shelter for a vast majority of people in the nation that lost everything trusting in their corrupt and filty, torturing government.

So, Obombaton, you best declare the martial law gig or you'll find yourself in the UNEMPLOYMENT LINE come the year 2012, if you've not totally flushed the nation into the fucking toilet following the Bush/Cheney crime cabal playbook to the letter.

I hope the miserable fucks who voted for you are happy, there were non McCorncob alternatives and don't give me that crap that a third party candidate couldn't win. If enough of you assholes would have voted INDEPENDENT or GREEN PARTY, we would have not gotten another REPUBLICAN LITE SHILL FOR DICTATORSHIP and MASS MURDER and TORTURE.

[fletch]

Ron Beasley-

I agree Geoff, throughing the grunts to the wolves again was a low point.

I promise not to laugh (out loud!) about "throughing"...

What about the people who were actually committing these 'crimes'? Did Yoo or Bybee (Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc.) ever personally waterboard a Guantanomo "detainee"?

Are you MORE in favor of prosecuting each and every individual who actually committed torture upon these "detainees"-- or are you merely wanting to punish someone in the "Bush administration"?

[Ron Beasley]

fletch
Who is ultimately responsible? It's irrelevant if Yoo et al. actually performed the illegal deeds they made it possible. As educated individuals they should have known beter and should be held responsible. The same cannot be said for the ignorant who were held resonsible.

[Steve Hynd]

Ron, Earl, geoff, Hoots: it's simple for me - politics doesn't come before principle. If it did, I'd be a UK Labour MP by now with my family and business connections.

Regards, Steve

[Ron Beasley]

Steve my friend and bloglord "politics doesn't come before principle" is exactly what what the wingnuts of the Republican party are doing with their purges. We have been quick to accuse the previous administration of trying to create their own reality. I wish is wasn't so but when you dismiss politics you are guilty of the same. If you really wanted to have an impact on things perhaps you should have taken advantage of you connections. Inside is always better than outside.

I was an idealist in the 70s and I learned it doesn't work. The way you win is to play the game. If you are smart enough you win. Yes, politics sucks but it is reality.

[Charles Lemos]

The photos do not represent a threat to our national security. It is the fact that laws were broken and that we tortured that we now find our sense of national security breached.

It is not these photos captured acts of barbarity; it is the conduct is unbecoming of Americans.

By addressing our sins, our nation is strengthened.

Thanks for the post, Steve!

Charles Lemos
mydd.com

[anna missed]

Well, at least Obama is keeping the "hope" of change alive and well, maybe under the kitchen sink or something.

[scott]

Ah, yes, Ron Beasley. It's always better to be on the inside of the tent pissing out on the victims of war crimes as you move forward, not backward, then outside demanding justice and accountability and vainly trying to piss in. You define realpolitik so inspirationally. God bless America!

[Steve Hynd]

Ron, I'm not dismissing politics - it's how one gets from wishes to legislation, after all. I'm saying that if Obama's politics isn't built on a bedrock of principles it isn't worth spit to me, personally.

And consider the actual political message being sent, as every wingnut writer is currently crowing: "I was full of hot air on the campaign trail, Bush was right after all." That's not a winning political message.

Regards, Steve

[Peter G.]

Now this is a particularly interesting thread. I'm of two minds on this subject. It doesn't matter when this bomb gets dropped as far as foreign blowback is concerned. And it seems inevitable that it will be dropped. Those photographs will be published. The domestic effect carries heavy political repercussions and Obama will, to some degree, be the messenger who'll be shot. The Republicans will be working very hard to see that happen never mind that they are the authors of this misfortune. It looks to me as if Obama is looking to have the courts be the messenger that brings us these lovely images. I can't say I blame him.

[wreck the place]

Cave and cave and cave and cave and cave. I would have felt like such a fucking idiot if I'd voted for that sniveling empty suit. If voting could change anything it would be illegal. Fortunately it's easy now to fuck the whole place up, just say nah, I don't want to buy that shit and we sink into a well-deserved depression.