It’s not just that the press hasn’t been honest about the extent of our barbarism during the Bush administration, it’s that they are actively in denial about it. Any cursory glance at the analysis being done currently on the cable teevee will prove this to you. They simply assumed that no one would even be held accountable because they allowed themselves to believe that everything was legally authorized. But dozens of people lost their lives and a lot of the torture went far beyond what was illegally authorized.
Update [2009-8-24 15:41:59 by BooMan]: The CIA IG Report is released.
Via WH email:
Will this investigation lead to Cheney and Bush?
Of course not. Sound and fury signifying nothing. A year from now we’ll be reading how our torture problem was merely “a few bad apples” who will get stern reprimands, then both sides will wonder how much time was wasted on Holder’s investigation.
One thing is for certain. During all this investigating they will undoubtedly find their “Lynndie England”. The pundits and the press will cluck for awhile about how relieved they are we are finally rid of such vile riff-raff. Obama will proudly pronounce that we have finally gotten to the bottom of all this, the bad apples have been brought to account and now we can move forward with a clear conscience because the final chapter has finally been written.
And then all we have to do is wait for it to happen again because all the pieces are still in place for the same kind of abuse down the road.
Call me jaded and cynical, but I’m steeled for another whitewashing by the Beltway elite to preserve their reputations and their power.
Anyone wish to wager on how much “accountability” we can expect to see out of all this? My guess is that once they have the scrotums of a few lowly CIA people to hang on their wall, this whole thing will come to a quick end.
Mission accomplished!! Nothing more to see here. Time to move along.
Dear Mr. Obama,
An investigation with a limited mandate is not the Change<sup>TM</sup> that I voted for.
perhaps it would be an easier to ask who has been honest?
certainly not the the msm, nor the politicians, cia, dhs, doj, fbi, joint chiefs, nsa…the list is too long to enumerate.
the most honest appraisal and commentary on the whole sordid affair came from the progressive blogosphere, and they/we were rewarded with accusations of being dfh, treasonous bastards who hated america.
if you really think holder, durham, et al, is really going to do what’s required, l’ve got some prime development property in okefenokee you may be interested in. his statement reads like the menu at a waffle house.
You miss the huge elephant implicit in that assumption:
They assumed they’d be in control of the elections to come.
That’s the ONLY explanation for such unabashed activity.
And they’d only feel confident in that if they had done it before.
I think 30 years from now, you’ll find that is exactly why they did all this. They really didn’t think they’d be held accountable. And, if it weren’t for the phenomena of Obama, they probably wouldn’t have been.
you guys are such cynics, I feel sorry for you. look at the timing of this – Obama on vacation, disavowing an intention of “looking back” instead of looking forward. But Holder, whom Obama appointed knowing full well who he is, feels we must look at these things. on one of the slowest news weeks of the year, health care going into the homestretch, this happens.
Obama is obviously going after this, just planning to live to tell the tale. I heartily approve!!!
viva Obama, a phrase so nice I’ll say it twice
I’m not holding out much hope that we’ll see anything that truly approximates justice, but I agree with you. This was very well played.
what are the real limitations of the usa? how do we learn from our mistakes and move forward? we must acknowledge the psst yet build on our strengths. I would argue just by electing Obama we’ve made a major step forward. I was in Mexico during the inauguration. My friends asked me about the concept of “yes we can” – just not a concept for people living under generations of corruption. Since I’m in a self disclosing mood, being raised among people who were part of the european resistence to nazis affects me.
yes we can is what i was born with and what i’ll take to my grave. With Obama, it’s a kind of recognition – I know you brother. I wager he too will take it to his grave.
end of self disclosure.