Cops and Empire

As above, so below.
What the US Government does abroad, the Criminal “justice system” does at home.
The one alienates, frustrates and angers People in far flung backwards countries; the other alienates, frustrates and angers People in (some) American Neighborhoods.
And then when those People, here and there, have had enough, and strike out in anger...we are shocked.
In both cases, the highest Sin in America, is putting one's own privileged white ass in the other guy's shoes. After 9-11, it was a sure way to get beat up, at worst...screamed at, at least...to ask,” why do they hate us so?--what could We have done to so piss those folks off?”
Now, after Ferguson, We are vilified for attempting to get our loud and hostile countrymen to walk a mile in Black, Brown and Poor Folks shoes in regards to the Cops.
The “Terrists” we are supposedly fighting over there, somehow deserve it....as do the People killed and maimed and beaten by Law Enforcement; No matter the Evidence...or lack thereof.
To question these Holy Assumptions...to examine them...is a bridge too far for our frothing brethren, so insane in their denial, and so fragile in their fearfulness.
Because it takes courage to call out one's own country for bad...even evil...behaviour, done in Our own name.
It takes courage to call out one's employees when they do wrong...especially when those employees are habituated to getting away with everything, and shameless in their counter recriminations.(“how dare they protest!”--”how dare they release a report!”)
It takes courage to look at one's own country and acknowledge it's...our...shortcomings and failures and fuck-ups.
It takes very little courage to scream at those who have the stones to be so honest.
Last I looked, less than 30% of Us who could vote...did.
...and the Right Wing's terrified terrorists “won”.
They think they have a “mandate”...and are behaving as if they do on TV:
Justifying the most heinous acts by Our employees, both abroad and at home.
Screaming, as they are wont to do, that “we are awesome”...when the evidence, quivering and shit-stained on the floor, is that we are, instead, the Evil Empire, now.
I reject, categorically, the worldview that rests on “my country right or wrong” and “love it or leave it”.
That is a dishonest worldview, founded on fear, and fit only for cowardly men.
At the moment, and so far, there is little evidence that “We are better than that”.
But We could be.

Torture

“I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just;
that his justice cannot sleep forever.”-Thomas Jefferson.



Punitive Rectal Rehydration.


In other, less euphemistic, words: Our employees connected a hose to a faucet, stuck the other end up some poor bastard's ass, and turned on the water.
As punishment.

Our employees.

In Our name.

Currently, the Great Wurlitzer of Hatred and Hysteria is churning out Apologia and Misdirection...blaming Obama(!?) for releasing the Senate Report that describes such activities in such gruesome detail.
How dare Obama and the Democrats release a report!
How dare they expose our perfidy and our barbarism!
The gall of those people!!
Living in the past, they are.
They should quit blaming Bush for everything!
…........

Punitive Rectal Rehydration.

Causing a detainee to stand naked, chained to the ceiling of a chilled concrete room, for days.
At least once, until death by hypothermia.

Setting attack dogs upon bound and naked and feces-smeared prisoners.

Applying electric currents to the genitals of detainees.
….............
There's the War Criminal Cheney, wringing his claws over the damage this report will do to our standing in the world; like a Molester getting all angry at the neighbor for turning him in.
There's even Lil George, himself....emerging from hiding to insist that the Torture Corps are the best people to have on our side. Those Torturers are “good people”...really.
There's Nicole Wallace, telling us that such things were what the American People wanted at the time...so very fearful were we.
There's the various babblers and screamers of Fox News, yelling stridently that “We're Awesome!”...as nations who Torture people are always regarded.

….............
I'll stop “blaming Bush” when he and his Administration and all of his now-forgetful Supporters take Responsibility for these things.
These War Crimes.
When the Good Americans, who screamed at me for naming George Bush II a War Criminal for such actions,take Responsibility .
When they who physically attacked me for being vocally Against Torture being done in My Name admit their error.
…................
Any other nation who engaged in such despicable behaviour would be universally and rightly condemned as a pariah.
But when the American Right does that same thing, they are to be excused?
Is this that much vaunted “Christian Morality”?
I note that every single person on Fox News right this minute endeavoring to justify Torture considers themselves a “Good Christian”...as well as an “American Patriot”.
Is this the standard to which we should aspire?
What would the outrage look like if it had been Obama or Clinton who had initiated, then covered up, these heinous crimes?
And right there is where all of the Justification...all of the Apologia...falls flat.
A Democratic Administration would be hung in effigy for these crimes....and rightly so.
Why do those same standards not apply to Bush and Cheney and their Ilk?



I am proud to say that I did not support Torture.
Too many, from the Former President on down to folks in this very town, did.
You should be ashamed of yourselves.
To this day, you fail to take responsibility for such Horrors.
You have lost the right to criticize the perceived Immorality of anyone.
Bush and Cheney and the whole bloody bunch have forever lost credibility...at least in more civilised places.
Places that actually Prosecute War Criminals.
America, it seems, is not one of those places.
Here, shining the Light on Evil in our midst is seen as a Liberal Plot to ruin the country.
Here, insisting that those of Our employees who have done wrong be brought to Justice is seen as evidence of traitorous intent.
Here, War Crimes done in service of Lies are to be excused...so long as those War Criminals have an ® after their name.
I pray that there is a God, and that His Justice may be swift.
Ours certainly is not.