As I watched and read about President Obama signing executive orders to reverse what seemed to me some of the most egregious acts of the Bush administration's fight on terror, the things that, to steal an aphorism from Nietsche through Bono, turned us into a monster in order to fight a monster, I felt an overwhelming sense of relief. Not that we've been a goody two shoes throughout our recent past prior to Presdient Bush--not at all. I came of age during President Reagan's covert wars in Central America and I know the awful things we have done--and funded--in other lands as well as our own (remember Tuskegee?). Still, the actions of our nation, rather that covertly doing things that were illegal (clearly reprehensible) we began to believe under our leaderhship that such things could be done openly and as legal. Here from the NYT's article yesterday:
Mr. Obama signed executive orders closing the detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, within a year; ending the Central Intelligence Agency’s secret prisons; and requiring all interrogations to follow the noncoercive methods of the Army Field Manual.
“We intend to win this fight,” he said. “We are going to win it on our own terms.” [read more]
The nearest parallel I could think of was in the early church rites of initiation, after the renunciation of the devil, his pomp and his works, the candidate would spit in the direction of the west before turning to the east to confess faith and then be baptized, dying to old ways, to an old self, and rising to walk in newness of life in Christ. Do I think George Bush and his assoicates were the devil? NO! I do see some of these actions of these men and women leading our nation as evil, however. EVIL. These last eight years were the worst of my life as a citizen. Our ideals will help us win, not our ability to use the same inhuman techniques and policies empoyed by those who seek to inflict harm upon us.
anon, and peace,
Chris
John Stewart on The Daily Show also makes that point at around the 1:37 mark of this clip:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=216561&title=fox-news-fear-imbalance
Posted by: Zach | January 23, 2009 at 10:52 AM