Mistakes Were Made
I have sometimes made judgments based on wishful thinking, supposing that wrongful acts must be laid at the feet of the immediate perpetrators, and trusting that the system, the context in which such acts occurred, will be strong enough, reliable enough to address the situation accordingly. This impulse has not usually failed me, at least when applied within the context of the rule of law. The U.S. court system has almost always adjusted itself to ensure no illegitimate act, either by those who would abuse lawfulness or who would abuse law-making, would go uncorrected. I should have known, however, when the Supreme Court put Bush in office, that a self-correcting system should not have been the foremost recipient of my charity.

Yes, the courts still work properly; that’s not where I’m going with this. Instead, I have come to realize that I’ve lost of late a little of my previous focus when examining the conduct of the last four years. I went a bit out of my way in subscribing to the “bad apples” theory of the Abu Ghraib war crimes, and put all the blame on those worst elements that inevitably exist in the military, elements that in a different command climate may have been better controlled and perhaps eliminated. Yes, these people have done these acts, and they have done so of their own free will and in some cases to their own sadistic pleasure, but a truer sense of charity would – without excusing these personnel – lay the blame, the shame, at the feet of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and the Cabinet, particularly Donald Rumsfield and his staff.

I cannot read Al Gore’s recent speech without cringing. He’s right, everything he says, although it’s far too late for him to stand up now, and I still have trouble forgiving him his robotic 2000 Presidential campaign. I should have known this was coming when we started shipping prisoners to countries where we knew they would be tortured and killed. I should have known when we put prisoners in Guantanamo Bay and denied them any status under law, calling them “enemy combatants” instead of prisoners of war. I should have known, and really I did, and I still offered the system and its architects more charity than I did the soldiers at the bottom of the abuse and of the chain of command. “The perpetrators as well as the victims were both placed in their relationship to one another by the policies of George W. Bush.” I remind myself everyday now: lay the blame where it belongs.

I recall a gag email going around immediately after the election, purporting to be from Queen Elizabeth II, saying, now that American democracy had failed, Britain would take us back. Here, in the context of Australia’s republic debate, I’ve often heard the argument that having a monarch protects against a descent into tyranny. Look at the French Revolution, what happened when they eliminated kings and the aristocracy. Look at the rise of Hitler in Germany’s post-Kaiser era. Perhaps it is too easy for a President to take power to himself so as to subvert the political processes he is meant to serve. But this is the error of the Supreme Court, in allowing Bush to come into the Presidency, and it is the failure of the Congress, perhaps especially the minor party, that they have not acted aggressively to stem his impulses. What America is this, where the powerful can sit above and sneer at what we all find so deeply repugnant, and do so without fear of any recourse the public might wish for?

Well, I’m happy, more than happy, to join Al Gore in demanding the resignations of Donald Rumsfield, Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith, Stephen Cambone (these last 3 are not, I believe, appointees, but employees, and can even be fired), and Condoleezza Rice. (I don’t care so much about George Tenet’s resignation, but I do think Colin Powell should have stepped down a long time ago. His role as Secretary of State was emasculated long before he sat in front of the Security Council of the UN and claimed Bush’s lies as his own.) I’d also like to see the back of John Ashcroft, but I’ll settle – for now – to see Congress not renew the USA Patriot Act, the primary document that has allowed so many injustices to occur. And I’ve known since November 2000 where my vote would be cast this year.