Sunday, February 27, 2011

Dear Mr. President,

All the revolutions in the Middle East that are toppling one dictator after another got me to thinking about how we see suppression and injustice elsewhere but don’t recognize it here at home. We decry the brutality and suppression of dissent by Mubarak, Qaddafi, Saleh and other dictators, but we do the same things – lock up dissidents, suppress information, use the media to spin and twist the news to support its’ views (that’s called propaganda anywhere else), spy on our citizens (illegal wiretaps), classify information it doesn’t want known as “Secret,” suspend habeas corpus (the Guantanamo Bay prisoners), and even put out hits on our own citizens. When other countries lock up dissidents we call them political prisoners but when we lock up people opposed to what the State does, we call it “a violation of the law.” Bradley Manning is a case in point. Locked up for 277 days, most of that time in solitary confinement in a Marine brig at Quantico, Virginia. This is torture, Mr. President. This is the kind of thing Mubarak would do, Qaddafi, Saleh. Accused of leaking classified information to WikiLeaks. Accused, not convicted and still not even a pretrial hearing. A person used to be innocent until proven guilty in America, but nowadays that’s only true if you’re rich enough to afford high-priced lawyers or powerful enough to have friends in high places, and an army Pfc. whistleblower doesn’t fit either category. While the information might have been embarrassing to the government, nothing I’ve seen looked like a threat to national security. What you and the (in)Justice Department got all knotted up about is that your hypocrisy and lies got exposed, but really, Mr. President, State Secrets are the domain of tyrants and the enemy of democracy. What your regime is doing with Bradley Manning and others is suppressing information that We the People need to make informed decisions about our government. In an article in yesterday’s paper, I read the following: “The Obama administration, in its first two years, indicted more officials for leaking information to reporters than any previous one.” That sure gave me pause. It should you too, Mr. President. This is the stuff of tyrannies, the erosion of democracy. I thought when we said goodbye to Bush and hello to Obama, we were changing direction, taking the high road and getting off the low road, but apparently not. You’re really starting to spook me out, Mr. President.

Free Bradley Manning!

Friday, February 25, 2011

Dear Mr. President,

Just over two months ago you said you were seeing significant progress in Afghanistan. Today I read that the U.S. military is pulling out of the Pech Valley completely, a place that, a few years ago was “central to the campaign against the Taliban and al Qaeda.” So much for significant progress and so much for winning the hearts and minds of the Afghan people. An internal assessment by the military concludes that we shouldn’t have entered the valley in the first place and one military official said, “What we finally figured out is that people in the Pech… just want to be left alone. Our presence is what’s destabilizing this area.” Well, duh!! How many years and how many lives did it take to figure that out, Mr. President? This is true in every town, every village, every valley everywhere. What a waste of lives and money and false hope, to invade another country under any pretext. We never learn that you can’t force democracy on people with bombs and bullets and disregard for human life and human dignity. I take no joy in saying this, Mr. President, but your decision to make Afghanistan ‘your’ war, send additional troops and show how you could do what Bush failed to do, was one stupid decision. The war in Afghanistan is unwinnable, the so-called War on Terror is unwinnable and the smartest thing we could do now is pull out and quit supporting that corrupt Karzai regime. Karzai and his cronies are draining the country’s resources to line their own pockets, making a joke of democracy, conducting rigged elections, and doing nothing for their countrymen or their country. They’re playing us for suckers and the longer we go along with it, the stupider we appear and the more hatred we engender. Are you still seeing significant progress, Mr. President? I sure don’t. Even your generals are having a hard time putting a smiley face on our retreat from the Pech: “I prefer to look at it as realigning to provide better security for the Afghan people,” Major General John F. Campbell is quoted as saying. Ha! What bullshit! Let’s take a new tack: let’s get out and leave them alone. It may be chaos for awhile and it may not have the outcome we want, but we ought to take a lesson from Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and other Middle East countries: people have to decide their own fate which may be slow in coming, and painful, but when they do it’s always a better solution than one imposed by an outside force, the military or any other bully.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Dear Mr. President,

According to the New York Times this morning, you put pressure on King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa to knock off the shooting of unarmed demonstrators in Pearl Square. That was good. I’d give you a B+ on that one. And you have “grave concerns” over the killing of hundreds of protesters by Qaddafi’s thugs in Libya. Kinda wishy-washy there. I’d give “grave concerns” a C- at most, although I know that’s diplomat-speak and you are, after all, the Diplomat-in-Chief. But really, Mr. President, your hesitancy to embrace the democratic revolutions sweeping the Middle East just ain’t cutting it. I know you can do better than that. Your speech on the Egyptian revolution, how we were witnessing history being made, how the Egyptian people would accept nothing less than democracy, was eloquent, the kind of thing you’re so good at, but boy, do your actions leave something to be desired. Our foreign policy is “selective encouragement” for democracy depending on “strategic interests,” i.e., commercial interests, the only interests that matter to Republicrats. We encouraged protests in Iran and Libya but waffled and waited in Egypt till it was a fait accompli. We’ve said little or nothing about the repressive regimes of our “allies,” Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Yemen, Jordan, and stone-cold silence when it comes to the most destabilizing factor in the entire region, Israel, who continues to ignore international law and basic human rights and is guilty of blatant genocide against the Palestinian people – all with our support. That’s disgusting, Mr. President. You’re a smart guy but you’re sure acting stupid on this democracy movement. These revolutions are our most effective weapon in the “War on Terrorism.” We’ve chased and fought al Queda and the Taliban for ten years without success. A trillion bucks down the drain, 13 billion a month and counting, thousands of lives destroyed, and here the Egyptians, with nonviolent grit and determination and an unstoppable desire for dignity, human justice and democracy toppled an autocrat in 18 days. Wow! That was a beautiful thing. That’s how hate and terrorism should be fought, not with bombs and bullets, but with support and encouragement for democracy. The double-speak and double standards that have been our foreign policy for the last 60 years have not worked. Quit supporting tyrants and dictators. Support democracy. Maybe “they” will stop hating us. Maybe we will stop hating ourselves.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Dear Mr. President,

Does nothing ever change in Washington? I read with utter disbelief that the U.S. vetoed the UN resolution condemning Israel’s illegal settlement activity in the occupied territories and calling for an immediate halt. What absolute hypocrisy! What absolute bullshit! Excuse my language, Mr. President, but you really got my dander up on this one. How can you condone genocide, illegal confiscation of land and the brazen violation not only of international law, but basic human rights? By this veto you are a party to Israel’s evil genocide against the Palestinians. This is not only shameful but immoral, evil, and the most vile betrayal of justice I can imagine. At least today. The U.S. has condoned Israel’s suppression and brutality of the Palestinians for 60 years. It is an insidious evil, a slow but steady genocide that has gone on since Israel declared itself a free and independent state in 1948. When will it end? When will the U.S. begin to practice the standards it preaches? When will the U.S. recognize and call out violations of human rights whether by friend or foe? I listened to Ambassador Rice’s interview on this vote. Double-speak and hypocrisy! She sounded like a talking dog, repeating the party line over and over again in response to every question. The revolutions sweeping the Middle East have exposed the U.S. as a hypocrite and supporter of despots against democracy. We are not only irrelevant when it comes to democracy and human rights but we are an impediment, driven only by the failed policies of the past and the commercial interests of the Republicrat party. We support tyranny, suppression, genocide and dictatorships. How can you live with yourself? I hereby rescind the vote I cast for you on November 4, 2008. Shame on you. Shame on me. Shame on all of us.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Dear Mr. President,

I’ll never know what you go through as president, of course, but I’m curious, does it ever bother you, the hypocrisy and double standards you’re forced into? Not exactly forced into, but pressured by tradition and received wisdom that requires someone of immense integrity and sense of right and wrong to reject. Someone of conviction, of commitment to democracy, freedom and justice, someone who will stand up for what’s right and not just what’s expedient or in our best business interests. An example is the double standard you show when talking about revolutions in Iran and Bahrain. You urged Iranian protesters to muster “the courage to be able to express their yearning for greater freedoms and more representative government,” and decried the beatings and brutality of the “security” forces and the killing of demonstrators, while you say nothing of the killing and brutality by “security” forces in Bahrain, don’t even mention the protests directly, and gently urge our ally, King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, to “…get out ahead of change. You can’t be behind the curve.” I know, Bahrain has been a strong ally against Iran (part of the “axis of evil”) and it also happens to be where the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet has its headquarters, but really, Mr. President, do you ever have any qualms about any of this? Your spokespeople keep saying you’re consistent in your stance but it sure doesn’t look like it from here. Even the New York Times, a pretty strong supporter, has some problems with the double standard. Yesterday’s paper carried an article about it, not calling it a double standard but rather “Two Paths on Unrest in Iran and Bahrain,” laying out the different stances toward allies and enemies. The article mentioned that you accused Iran’s leaders of hypocrisy for encouraging protests in Egypt and then cracking down on young Iranians who tried to protest against their own repressive regime. Boy, talk about the pot calling the kettle black! I call this “The Audacity of Hypocrisy!” There are deep differences between Iran and Bahrain, say your White House flacks, but it seems to me the only differences are in perception. You sees what you want to see. People wonder why “they” hate us so much. Well, Mr. President, right here’s the answer to a lot of it. Hypocrisy. Double standards. Support of tyranny. Disregard for the people, for justice, for democracy. Business interests over people interests. It’s a sad sad tale and I’m seeing nothing to change it.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Dear Mr. President,

I bet the Dexter Filkins article, “The Afghan Bank Heist” in this week’s New Yorker gave you some heartburn. It should have. Kabul Bank: nine hundred million, probably more, “lost,” gone, vanished, unaccounted for, all of it lining the pockets of Karzai and his cronies. Almost a billion dollars disappears without a trace in a country whose entire GDP is only twelve billion. Eight and a third percent of the GDP gone to graft, bribes, kickbacks and outright thievery, most of it, maybe all of it, U.S. taxpayer dollars. And that’s just one bank. In 2009 the flow of U.S. dollars out of Afghanistan was estimated at $2.5 billion. According to Transparency International, Afghanistan is the third most corrupt country in the world, behind only Somalia and Myanmar. “It’s a vertically integrated criminal enterprise,” one anonymous American official is quoted as saying. The corruption and scandal of the Karzai government, the article shows, is simply staggering, so much so that no one in your administration is allowed to talk about it. Not the investigators who have irrefutable proof, not the generals, not the diplomats, no one. They’ve all been ordered to keep their mouths shut. Here at home meanwhile, the budget deficits continue to mount, civil servant salaries are frozen for two years, domestic spending faces deep budget cuts and state governments are out of money. So how’s the war in Afghanistan going, Mr. President? Investigators discovered that a good percentage of the money we give the Afghan government, maybe 10%, winds up in the hands of the Taliban who uses it to field their insurgent fighters. “The Americans, it turns out, are funding both sides of the war.” Tell me again where you’re seeing signs of progress? As one Afghan businessman said, “Right now, this country is all about raping and pillaging as much as you can, because there is no faith in the future.” He added that the Taliban believe in their cause but the Karzai people believe in nothing but self-enrichment. This war is a moral evil. We are backing yet another corrupt and repressive regime. It’s clear we’ve given up on Karzai and yet we’re still there, still shelling out $13 billion a month, and our troops are still killing and being killed. For what purpose, Mr. President? By the time I finished the article it was no longer clear who the enemy was or what we’re doing there. What is our goal in Afghanistan? Can you please explain any of this?

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Dear Mr. President,

Yesterday’s letter nattered on about the nascent birth of democracy in Egypt while here at home we take freedom and liberties for granted, failing to see their erosion through things like the Patriot Act, illegal wiretaps, rendition and torture, suspension of habeas corpus, and assassination of our own citizens, all in the name of national security, the same justification used by Mubarak to subjugate Egyptians for 30 years. However, I failed to mention one of the more insidious: the State Secrets Privilege, a legal precedent from the 1800s but rarely used until recently, especially by the Bushies to evade accountability for torture, silence national security whistleblowers, and even dismiss a lawsuit alleging racial discrimination. According to the ACLU, “This once-rare tool is being used not to protect the nation from harm, but to cover up the government’s illegal actions and prevent further embarrassment.” Invoking State Secrets, the government can simply stop legal action in its tracks by making it impossible to gain or disclose information the government deems harmful to national security if made public. In last Friday’s New York Times, an article illustrated its power and misuse. A CIA agent, Kevin Shipp, and his family moved into government housing that had toxic mold which caused all kinds of health problems: nosebleeds, nausea, dizziness, loss of memory, acute asthma, etc. Despite his complaints, the army and the CIA downplayed and then denied any problems with the house and Mr. Shipp was forced to sue for damages. The case was referred to mediation and the government offered to settle for $400,000, then rescinded the offer and invoked the State Secrets Privilege to seal the case and stop further legal action. Mr. Shipp’s marriage ended and he left the CIA but his anger at the injustice spurred him to write a memoir showing how the government misuses the State Secrets Privilege and how flawed it is. Using only unclassified documents in the book, he submitted the manuscript to the CIA for the required prepubication clearance; it came back heavily redacted with all evidence of his claims blacked out and once again Mr. Shipp finds himself forced into a legal system skewed in favor of power against the common man, a situation not uncommon in the Middle East. Where does it end, Mr. President, and when do you do the right thing and fight back against the erosion of democracy? Those of us out here on the hustings are waiting for a sign.