I Don’t Normally Do This, But…
People send me lots of suggestions of stuff to post to the blog, but most of them are redundant to stuff I’ve seen elsewhere or just plain suck. This reaction to Piehole’s speech last night (“Mission Accomplished II”), however, rates an exception:
I imagine you may receive a bit of mail looking for you post or link to stuff. But please consider doing either with this short essay I wrote, which you can find on leftbankblog.blogspot.com.
Thanks a lot,
Joe FarbeannA Tale of Two Americans
June 28, 2005-
One American strode boldly into the Ft. Bragg military base in North Carolina to deliver a speech about a war on an abstract concept.
A second American was nearby in a similar setting, a navy brig in South Carolina.
The first American surrounded himself with U.S. troops, cynically using them as political props so that he could justify keeping them at risk in a dangerous occupation in a hostile land in order for the first American’s friends and campaign contributors to make a fortune off the occupation.
The second American was surrounded by the U.S. troops that have been brutally interrogating him for over 3 years, denying him his 5th Amendment rights and Geneva Convention rights. His interrogators are subverting the rule of law and trashing human rights and the American way because he is thought to be an “enemy” in the war against the abstract concept, and the government lacks the evidence to formally try him.
The first American put the second American where he is. The first American is responsible for authorizing the kidnapping of the second American, who, despite numerous court rulings ordering him to be set free, remains in confinement. The first American is the real criminal while the second American must still be considered innocent according to what at least used to be American law.
The saga of George W. Bush and Jose Padilla continues. While one still needs to be held accountable for systematic torture and illegal war, the other has already been held accountable despite not being convicted, let alone charged with a crime.
For those who still believe in constitutional and human rights, this is a most critical juncture.
