np congratulations

[David Patty]

You skipped over the part where Bush & his admin re-branded torture as
'advanced interrogations techniques', dismissed the Geneva Conventions as
antiquated & obscure, and put forth the idea that the mental & physical
ruination of your fellow man is less a *moral* matter than a *philosophical*one.

But aside from that, agree 100%.

That's the one thing that continues to bother me re: Obama--  I know he was
running a clean, civil campaign, but his repeated insistence that McCain
somehow -stood up- to the re-branding of torture irks me.  McCain did the
same w/ that discussion as he did w/ the so-called suspension of his
campaign:  he rushed to the limelight, to -seem- to participate in a piece
of kabuki.  As one of the foremost visible subjects of the actual Practice
of torture in American politics, he had a responsibility to do more than
merely denounce it...  Instead he *signed off* on it, in line w/ the Bush
admin.  Reprehensible.  The man dismissed any honor he claimed to possess as
a soldier with the stroke of a pen, simply to curry that most ephermeral of
powers, political favor.

The fact that the Bush admin's wriggling on the subject is expressly to
exonerate them from war crimes pains me no end.  It's beyond amoral or
selfish, it's the very evil America claims to deplore. I can understand
Obama wanting to move us past this phase of history w/out any rubbernecking,
because the longer my mind lingers on the subject of our brute behavior the
more I want to see a new Nuremberg.  Many of us would all but embrace the
idea of seeing the Bush admin tried & made to suffer, but it won't happen.
Prosecution's out of the question; at best we might expect the admin to
throw a general or two on the fire, as opposed to actual architects of
atrocity  --so perhaps it's best to drop the subject and focus on what can
be done to make amends.

First thing would be to shut down Gitmo & its sinister siblings abroad, then
set about restoring our adherence to the Conventions, IMO.  Symbolic, sure,
but only proper, too.  There are people in there who haven't seen their
families (or even lawyers) for over seven years.  They deserve to be known
as more than combatants out of uniform, driven to suicidal acts of
'asymmetrical warfare'.  We need to know their names & faces, to see them
reunited with what's left of their families & lives, to be properly shamed
for our passivity in the lynch-mob rush to get revenge post-9/11.

In a better world, these people would have been our friends, neighbors, even
relatives.  As it stands, we have some twenty-odd years of repair to look
forward to, not dissimilar to the aftermath of our incarcerating anyone even
remotely asian after Pearl Harbor.  Best we get started now.

Sorry if I'm taking the bubbles out of anyone's champagne.  Just want this
bullshit over.

-D

-- 
MICROLOG:  http://twitter.com/R_R_D
ART & PHOTOS:  http://picasaweb.google.com/navan.ghee
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20081105/8c581ddd/attachment-0001.html>