"I want to congratulate the House for passing a very vital piece of legislation that will give us the tools necessary to protect the American people."
- George Bush on the Military Commissions Act of 2006
Our latest sordid tale begins on the not-so-long-ago day of September 20 of this year. It was the type of sunny and mild day in New York City that politely portends the transition from summer warmth to autumn cool. It was on this day while addressing the U.N. General Assembly in New York that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez repeatedly referred to George Bush as "the devil". Based on the snickering and mild applause in the hall, the assembled foreign diplomats and dignitaries didn't much disagree with the characterization.
More to follow...
Needless to say, the righteous indignation immediately following this grave insult was palpable on both sides of the political spectrum. Not so much that it didn't subside fairly rapidly though - perhaps as quickly as it takes to run the word "devil" through Wikipedia or to buy Noam Chomsky's new book, "Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance," from Amazon.com which Mr. Chavez touted so effectively during his speech. Mr. Chavez' predictably unorthodox campaign for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council was progressing splendidly.
It was against this backdrop of absurdist theatre that an equally absurd but more vile and lethal campaign was taking place. In the never-ending quest to expand executive power, the President was actively pursuing an aggressive public relations campaign to soften the already mushy American public to the idea of shredding the Geneva Conventions, boldly codifying torture into American law in the guise of protecting US citizens and covering his ass for war crimes already committed. On the heels of a disagreeable Supreme Court decision and deciding that the articles of the Geneva Conventions which prohibited cruel and degrading treatment were too vague, it was proposed that he alone would decide what constituted torture during the detainment and interrogation of suspects in his war on terror.
And since that may not be enough responsibility for a man who's not yet mastered the pronunciation of the word "nuclear", it was deemed suitable to allow him to decide what or who constitutes an "unlawful enemy combatant". In the interest of inclusion, the narrow definition was expanded to anyone who "purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States" - American citizen or otherwise. At the whim of a single man, ordinary Americans could be required to defend themselves before a military tribunal without the constitutional guarantees provided in criminal trials. And lest I forget, that quaint legal standard of habeas corpus wherein the accused has the right to hear the charges against him and challenge all evidence in a court of law - the president's proposal would effectively eliminate it.
Although most legal observers and many in the House and Senate agreed that the bill has little chance of withstanding close scrutiny in federal court (even some who voted for it), the House approved the bill on September 27. Just the day before the vote, a leaked report prepared by U.S. intelligence agencies indicated that the Iraq war was actually fueling the Islamic extremism that it was intended to quell. To the House-members who voted to authorize the bill, the leaked report apparently made it crystal clear that since our bold and noble efforts in Iraq were resulting in unfortunate and unintended consequences - namely more terrorists - we damned well better be allowed to use all means to extract information from them.
It would now move on to the Senate for certain passage. But wait, there's a twist. It's those rebellious Republican Senators again - doing the hard work of keeping the President in line when he unknowingly endeavors to consolidate power to the Executive Branch.
You know the ones - Lindsay Graham, John Warner and of course John McCain, the maverick. When will we have had enough of this group of so-called respected veteran Republican Senators who with great fanfare stand together in "defiance" of the President and his latest morally repugnant or blatantly illegal power grab? By any measure it appears the press haven't. On cue they go ga-ga over these renegades - the public gets a sense that there really are checks and balances occurring in government - a "compromise" is inevitably reached (which in reality is little more than a wholesale concession to the president) - the president and his puppeteers win again and our democracy and the very soul of our country further slips into the abyss.
On September 28, the Senate approved the Military Commissions Act of 2006. As cynical as it is vile, it allows its supporters to claim their fealty to the cause of supporting the "war on terror" in this election season. Even some Democrats embroiled in tight mid-term election campaigns voted in favor of the bill to avoid the certain attacks by their opponents for "coddling terrorists" or some such nonsense. Such is the putrid state of American politics today.
A cold, steady rain fell on Washington the 17th day of October as the president signed the bill into law in a White House East Room ceremony. Vice President Cheney, emerging from his coffin briefly to attend the ghoulish spectacle was unable to control his glee and could be seen dabbing the dark, cold blood dripping from his sharpened incisors.
Much had transpired though in the time the measure was quickly passed and the day it became law.
Email evidence of Republican Congressman Mark Foley's predatory sexual interest in young male congressional pages surfaced as did suggestions of a Republican-leadership cover-up. The lurid and pathetic details woke up the slumbering part of the nation whose political interest is stirred only by a sex scandal and the abundance of media attention such an event garners.
The little psychopath in North Korea, Kim Jong-Il tested a nuclear device in defiance of the world. The Bush administration's foreign policy toward North Korea would be best characterized as hovering somewhere between empty bravado and utter indifference.
A Johns Hopkins study was released placing the civilian death toll in the invasion and occupation of Iraq at 650,000. Predictably, the Bush administration went into overdrive to discredit the staggering number and the study. Shoot the messenger and the message.
Bob Woodward's new book, "State of Denial" painted a picture of a president and an administration dangerously out of touch with the realities of a war beyond their control. Too little too late Mr. Woodward.
The rhetoric over Iran and its nuclear intentions was ratcheted up a notch or two and at this moment, to the great ignorance of the American public, U.S. war ships have now been placed within quick striking distance of Tehran.
A fresh field of Democrats with an eye toward retaking the House and Senate in the November mid-term elections continued to make gains and ride a tide of discontentment with George Bush and the Republicans in general.
The president purchased a huge tract of land in Northern Paraguay - perhaps planning to follow in the footsteps of countless on-the-run Nazis and other war criminals that have favored South American countries for their exile.
Another senseless shooting occurred. This time the victims were Amish children in their schoolhouse. The tragedy and its aftermath was punctuated by the media focusing on just about everything except the gun-toting elephant in the room: an obscene overabundance of guns in America and the ease of access to them. The Amish could teach us all a lesson in compassion and forgiveness.
The fifth anniversary of the launch of the U.S.-led war against Afghanistan saw the Taliban growing, much of the countryside in the hands of warlords and opium cabals, U.S. casualties increasing, and most Afghans worse off than before the invasion.
The sectarian violence and general carnage in Iraq reached new heights as the American death toll for October continued to rush headlong into the triple digits.
What never transpired however may be a measure of our times and the effectiveness of this administration to convince the American public that all rules, including those governing the most fundamental aspects of human decency were rendered invalid by the actions of extremists on September 11, 2001.
The absence of public outcry and outrage over this bill is a blight on the collective psychic soul of our country that can perhaps be understood in the context of the times in which we live - the inanity of our fame-for-fames-sake popular culture, the moral vacuum from which the preponderance of our religious and political leaders preach, the depravity of a global economic structure that rewards the very few at the expense of the many, and the sheer lunacy of a world in which rock stars and Hollywood actors are our loudest voices decrying world hunger, disease and genocide.
By any measure though, the passage of this bill and the silence of the people and of the media is a shameful embarrassment and once and for all eviscerates the time worn myth that the U.S. is some benevolent moral arbiter of all things good and just in the world. While the vast majority of Americans are good and decent people and many may finally be waking up to cancer that is the Bush administration, too many still appear to have the stomach for the "alternative interrogation techniques" that the president swears do not constitute torture.
I'm not as certain as Hugo Chavez that George Bush is the devil, although he appears to embody the characteristics that many major religions identify with Satan - hubris, hatred of mankind, deceit. Regardless, civilized men do not petition their country to legalize an act which robs the humanity of the tortured and the torturer.
It's time to wake up and smell the sulpher.
Just as every cop is a criminal
And all the sinners saints
As heads is tails
Just call me Lucifer
'Cause I'm in need of some restraint
- M. Jagger/K. Richard