Looking Forward to Prosecutions
President Obama keeps saying he prefers to "look forward rather than backward" whenever he is asked about the possibility of investigating and prosecuting the architects of the Bush/Cheney administration's torture policies. As clearly brilliant as he is, does he actually not realize that doesn't make the slightest bit of sense? Does he understand that investigating violations of US and International law in no way prevents him and his administration from "looking forward"?This very construction is odd, forced and awkward. You never hear any one say "I prefer looking forward rather than backward" when it comes to prosecuting fraud, corruption, larceny or even bank robbery or murder. That's because there is no way that investigating and prosecuting crimes is accurately described as "looking backwards", and in fact have nothing whatsoever to do with whatever direction you choose to look. We have laws. Enforcing them is something we do. We have government policies and agendas. Setting and pursuing them is another thing we do. No one has ever seriously made the case that one interferes with another.
"Looking forward rather than backward" sounds to me like nothing so much as "fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them over here". Clever, facile and utterly nonsensical. Repeat it enough and it will become accepted, received wisdom, inarguable and irrefutable. Marketing 101. And it very often seems to be an effective tactic - but only as long as critical voices don't ask obvious questions. And once again, there are no critical voices asking obvious questions. That a specious and nonsensical statement like this can go unquestioned is not, I suppose, particularly surprising. But it does raise the question of just how blatantly false the statements of America's political leadership will be allowed to become before someone asks the most simple of questions?
"Mr. President, you have stated on many occasions that on the issue of American War Crimes, you prefer to look forward instead of backwards. Can you explain to the American people how refusing to investigate and prosecute criminal acts prevents you from looking forward? Because I'm at a loss to explain it to my readership".
That's all it would take. Oh, it would certainly have to be asked more than once, but if the most facile nonsense can be offered by a democratically elected government as explanation for the most radical policies, then there is nothing left to prevent them from doing anything they want. The final check on arbitrary government power is the requirement that they provide some kind of coherent framework for the actions they choose. If they can do something like this, to the long-term detriment of the United States of America for purely short-term political reasons and explain it away with slogan, a meaningless mantra, a mere incantation, the people can no longer expect their government to act with their best interests foremost.
posted by mikey @ 12:11 PM
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