Just Hours Away From SALVATION and SANITY !!!

[Dudester]

....Exactly, I always kinda thought we were on the "same page" BBWOLF - thumbs up !!!

 

[steveinbsas]

Dudester, you've convinced me of the error of my ways. I've just become too cynical for my own good. Plus I just read this article that explains the full implications of Obama's courageous decision to close Guantanamo.

....Exactly, I always kinda thought we were on the "same page" BBWOLF - thumbs up !!!

Hey, Dudester, Did you actually read the article before you gave BBW the thumbs up?

If you had, I think you might have used a different digit.

 

[Moxon]

....Exactly, I always kinda thought we were on the "same page" BBWOLF - thumbs up !!!

Not even in the same library.

 

[jp]

Dudester, you've convinced me of the error of my ways. I've just become too cynical for my own good. Plus I just read this article that explains the full implications of Obama's courageous decision to close Guantanamo.

Wow. So by closing guantanamo and banning torture, obama is actually endorsing it and increasing it. Lovely doublethink there...

 

[bigbadwolf]

Hey, Dudester, Did you actually read the article before you gave BBW the thumbs up?

If you had, I think you might have used a different digit.

Shshsh! You're letting the cat out of the bag.

 

[bigbadwolf]

Wow. So by closing guantanamo and banning torture, obama is actually endorsing it and increasing it. Lovely doublethink there...

He's returning it to the pre-GWB status quo -- which is nothing to boast of. I've heard that only 4% of the prisoners held illegally in the world by the US and its proxies are held in Guantanamo. But Guantanamo has been in the spotlight and Obama picks up easy brownie points for closing it down. Obama will go for all the "low-lying political fruit" (to quote a Spengler essay), all the cheap and easy decisions that will afford him popularity with the liberals. Only then will he tackle any of the tough decisions that might alienate said liberals. And in the tough decisions -- if his background is any indication -- he'll veer the same way as GWB (but with more finesse).

A propos torture and war crimes, a recent piece by Paul Craig Roberts, from which the following excerpt is drawn:

The Bush regime was a lawless regime. This makes it difficult for the Obama regime to be a lawful one. A torture inquiry would lead naturally into a war crimes inquiry. General Taguba said that the Bush regime committed war crimes. President Obama was a war criminal by his third day in office when he ordered illegal cross-border drone attacks on Pakistan that murdered 20 people, including 3 children. The bombing and strafing of homes and villages in Afghanistan by US forces and America’s NATO puppets are also war crimes. Obama cannot enforce the law, because he himself has already violated it.

Obama’s order to close Guantanamo Prison means very little. Essentially, Obama’s order is a public relations event. The tribunal process had already been shut down by US courts and by military lawyers, who refused to prosecute the fabricated cases. The vast majority of the prisoners were hapless individuals captured by Afghan warlords and sold for money to the stupid Americans as "terrorists." Most of the prisoners, people the Bush regime told us were "the most dangerous people alive," have already been released.


Obama’s order said nothing about closing the CIA’s secret prisons or halting the illegal practice of rendition in which the CIA kidnaps people and sends them to third world countries, such as Egypt, to be tortured.


Obama would have to take risks that opportunistic politicians never take in order for the US to become a nation of law instead of a nation in which the agendas of special interests override the law.

 

[jp]

Well, low hanging fruit is generally where you start. Guantanamo was a symbolic relic of a generally disgraceful regime.

Whether he take the tougher decisions required to bring about meaningful change remains to be seen.

I find it slightly ridiculous that people are complaining that he has failed to change the world and alter the path of humanity after a few days in office.

 

[bigbadwolf]

I find it slightly ridiculous that people are complaining that he has failed to change the world and alter the path of humanity after a few days in office.

I agree with you. But there's really a deeper question: How far can one man -- no matter what office he holds -- really change the dynamic of a worldwide empire? And in any case, an argument can be made that the system brings to the fore only pliant instruments. I'm not criticising Obama
-- that would be immature and I'll leave that to dreamy-eyed liberals who become disillusioned. Obama is just another product of the system -- as Clinton and Carter were before him. What I'm saying is that all the hopes people have placed in him are not going to be realised: things don't work this way. Obama has to turn out -- a priori -- as another Tony Blair.

 

[bigbadwolf]

More scepticism from the nay-sayers (why, oh why, can they not believe):

So, the Pope of Hope announced his (purported) objective of closing the military detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba (“Gitmo”) within one year and we’re expected to herald this announcement as a drastic break from the past....

The Chairman of Change has made no secret of how he wholeheartedly adores the bogus war on terror. Closing Gitmo (an act which still falls squarely into the believe-it-when-you-see-it category) is at best a strategic sidestep by a cautious and calculating new president.

 

[jp]

First he's condemned for closing guantanamo because it will increase reliance of foreign torture agents.
Now he's condemned because guantanamo hasn't been closed immediately, and therefore might not happen.

Being skeptical is one thing, but making a conscious effort to reinterpret every action as negatively as possible is just morbid pessimism.

You're right in pointing out that one man, even the leader of the free world has limited power. But unless you think the office of president is a ceremonial position, there's a lot of potential. I'm no fan of Tony Blair, but to his credit he achieved a lot of what he set out to do and a lot of it was very impressive.

Life's too short to sneer at anticipated failures.