Sometimes when I listen to the “daily news”, I am totally confused….for instance, the current Senate intelligence committee report on CIA activities in 2001-2008 is often being reported on with negative OBAMA connotations as if HE and his administration were to blame.
I guess the expectation was that once the BUSHIES were out and he was in, he was supposed to wave a wand and make eight years of ineptness disappear. Personally, I would have loved to see Obama take office in 2009, expose it all and put the “artist formerly known as the US President” and his evil neo-con advisors right where they belonged – in court in the defendant chair.
But get real, folks. First there is the just the moving into the White House experience and living under the constant eye of the public to get used to. Then there is the expanse of responsibilities a new president inherits-let alone the ambitious promises and agendas forged in a long campaign to even become President; and then, in this case, the ineptness of the previous administration with its wars and intrigue and not much else. And let’s not forget the right wing disrespect and attacks on Obama, his African American background and whether or not he was a citizen of the United State – all because he was not a good ole white boy.
But aside from all of that, there is also a “fraternity of Presidents” that works to change but not discredit their predecessor. And of course in this case, the number one priority was trying to re-steer the US ship out of TWO wars on to a better course for all Americans.
From my viewpoint, Obama stopped practices he was able to; he’s tried to minimize others that could not be changed; and he did indeed change the course of this country from the direction the left-over “wannabee” war heroes known as the NEO-CONS were trying to take it. All that, and the Health Care Reform ACT – like it or not.
Nevertheless, the current still-secret investigations are at least now moving in the right direction.
According to the STRIB yesterday, the investigation “calls into question the legal foundation of the CIA’s use of waterboarding and other harsh interrogation techniques on suspected terrorists…challenges the key defense on which the agency and the Bush administration relied in arguing that the methods didn’t constitute torture.”
But whether you think it was torture or earned punishment, one cannot excuse the fact that that the CIA disrespect for human life itself was clearly demonstrated by the fact they did not think it necessary TO KEEP ACCURATE RECORDS of the numbers that were tortured nor the names of those that suffered; and worse, then lied as it issued “erroneous claims about how many it detained and subjected to the controversial investigation methods.
This morning, the story continued. As if waterboarding was not enough, today we learned we need to add sleep deprivation for up to eleven days at a time, confinement in a cramped box and slamming detainees into walls.
And the Repos DARE criticize Obama’s Middle East policies? I’d say it’s time to look in the mirror and accept that any cooling of relationships and increase in dislike of Americans maybe has its renewed beginnings in the Bush Administration!
Frankly, George W’s “self-portrait” of himself in the bathtub demonstrates exactly what a dufus he really is. I guess we should be GRATEFUL that he did not do MORE DAMAGE than he did while he was in office.
created by CEK 