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The Times Union (Albany, New York)
October 26, 2007 Friday
1 EDITION
Skills of deception now blindfold reality
By ANDREW GREELEY
I am ashamed for America.
Note carefully that I do not say I am ashamed of America. Despite all
its inherent flaws and all its tragic mistakes, the United States
stands, however incompletely and with whatever imperfections, for the
highest standards of freedom and democracy that the world has yet
known.
I am ashamed for America, however, because of all the evil done in
the nation's name is turning off the light on the mountain top.
President Bush urges the Congress in effect to accept the Turkish
protest against the attribution of Armenian genocide because, it
might interfere with Turkish logistic cooperation in the ill-starred
and foolish Iraq war. That's like silencing all congressional action
on the Holocaust because we need Germany on our side. If Turks expect
to become part of Europe and the West, they must acknowledge what
their ancestors did. They could pass a resolution of their own
accusing us of genocide against native Americans if it would make
them happy.
How humiliating that the President wants us to ignore what happened
to the Armenians so we can be victorious in the "global war on
terror" (the replacement for "weapons of mass destruction.") That's
called appeasement, and it was appeasement when President Clinton did
the same thing.
Our government kidnaps, tortures and murders people. The President
blithely dismisses these charges. The United States, he says, does
not torture. But that deception is based on a memo from Alberto
Gonzales defining torture, which the White House won't let anyone
else look at.
The government pays large salaries to 148,000 private contractors in
Iraq. That's more than the total American military presence there. A
third of these contractors are toting guns. They are mercenaries,
often it would seem with very quick trigger fingers. Ironically,
their most recent victims were two Armenian Christian women.
These contractors are a kind of American foreign legion like the
notorious French and Spanish foreign legions. They may well be very
brave people who do very tough jobs. They also compensate for
then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's criminal underestimate of
the number of troops required for the Iraq war. If, however, the
country is going to have a Legion Etranger, it should make sure it
works under tight control. Humphrey Bogart, where are you when we
really need you?
At a remarkably frank meeting of middle-range officers (majors and
colonels at Forth Leavenworth), the soldiers debate not whether there
should have been a war in Iraq, but who was to blame for losing it.
Was it senior officers or joint chiefs or civilian leaders?
The war is not even over yet and already the officers who fought it
and will continue to fight already have given up hope. Too bad for
them because the President has made up his mind that we are still
going to win the war and the Democratic presidential candidates speak
about a 10-year presence in Iraq. Whatever the political leadership
is or will be in 2009, no candidate seems capable of saying, "We're
getting out now!'
And the rest of the world laughs at us because both parties are led
by fools.
Anyone who cares about the United States and its legacies has to be
broken- hearted at what has been done to our beloved country by the
crazy people who are running it, people who have become so skilled at
deception that they don't even realize any more that they are
deceiving.
Just like the Democrats don't realize they are again stealing defeat
out of the jaws of victory.
October 26, 2007 Friday
1 EDITION
Skills of deception now blindfold reality
By ANDREW GREELEY
I am ashamed for America.
Note carefully that I do not say I am ashamed of America. Despite all
its inherent flaws and all its tragic mistakes, the United States
stands, however incompletely and with whatever imperfections, for the
highest standards of freedom and democracy that the world has yet
known.
I am ashamed for America, however, because of all the evil done in
the nation's name is turning off the light on the mountain top.
President Bush urges the Congress in effect to accept the Turkish
protest against the attribution of Armenian genocide because, it
might interfere with Turkish logistic cooperation in the ill-starred
and foolish Iraq war. That's like silencing all congressional action
on the Holocaust because we need Germany on our side. If Turks expect
to become part of Europe and the West, they must acknowledge what
their ancestors did. They could pass a resolution of their own
accusing us of genocide against native Americans if it would make
them happy.
How humiliating that the President wants us to ignore what happened
to the Armenians so we can be victorious in the "global war on
terror" (the replacement for "weapons of mass destruction.") That's
called appeasement, and it was appeasement when President Clinton did
the same thing.
Our government kidnaps, tortures and murders people. The President
blithely dismisses these charges. The United States, he says, does
not torture. But that deception is based on a memo from Alberto
Gonzales defining torture, which the White House won't let anyone
else look at.
The government pays large salaries to 148,000 private contractors in
Iraq. That's more than the total American military presence there. A
third of these contractors are toting guns. They are mercenaries,
often it would seem with very quick trigger fingers. Ironically,
their most recent victims were two Armenian Christian women.
These contractors are a kind of American foreign legion like the
notorious French and Spanish foreign legions. They may well be very
brave people who do very tough jobs. They also compensate for
then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's criminal underestimate of
the number of troops required for the Iraq war. If, however, the
country is going to have a Legion Etranger, it should make sure it
works under tight control. Humphrey Bogart, where are you when we
really need you?
At a remarkably frank meeting of middle-range officers (majors and
colonels at Forth Leavenworth), the soldiers debate not whether there
should have been a war in Iraq, but who was to blame for losing it.
Was it senior officers or joint chiefs or civilian leaders?
The war is not even over yet and already the officers who fought it
and will continue to fight already have given up hope. Too bad for
them because the President has made up his mind that we are still
going to win the war and the Democratic presidential candidates speak
about a 10-year presence in Iraq. Whatever the political leadership
is or will be in 2009, no candidate seems capable of saying, "We're
getting out now!'
And the rest of the world laughs at us because both parties are led
by fools.
Anyone who cares about the United States and its legacies has to be
broken- hearted at what has been done to our beloved country by the
crazy people who are running it, people who have become so skilled at
deception that they don't even realize any more that they are
deceiving.
Just like the Democrats don't realize they are again stealing defeat
out of the jaws of victory.