It’s always the same, isn’t it?
Our government gets caught in a lie and only reluctantly
acknowledges gross wrongdoing, incompetence or criminal behavior, but in the
same breath says that no one will be held accountable, prosecuted, convicted,
or sent to prison because it’s all in the past and we must move on.
When Obama assumed office after the financial crash of 2008,
he immediately declined to pursue the
architects of the collapse – the greedy, criminal bankers and speculators who
fleeced billions of dollars from millions of Americans. No, Obama, beholden to the
financial interests that helped put him in the White House, said the nation
needed to move on, focus on the future, not the past.
And now the long awaited torture report is out (heavily
redacted, of course) – a report Obama administration officials did everything in
their power to delay, block, water down or bury – and the president once again
says we must focus on the future, not the past.
The report excoriates the CIA for lying to Congress, the
White House, and spreading disinformation through our lazy, co-opted corporate media
establishment. On the one hand, the
Obama administration claims credit for allowing the report to be published at
all (see how transparent and open we are!), but on the other says no one will
be held to answer for his or her crimes (see what cowards we are!).
The higher one climbs into the echelons of power, the less
accountability one finds. CEO’s lose billions of dollars of shareholder dough on
fraudulent transactions, and what happens: they earn huge bonuses.
High-ranking government officials – like Dick Cheney and
Condi Rice -- condone the torture of individuals who never posed a threat to
the country, and what happens: the officials skip away scot-free, entitled to
their pensions, free (taxpayer subsidized) health care, lucrative book deals,
or cozy jobs in corporate America.
A black teenager arrested for possession of two ounces of
marijuana will be convicted and sent to prison -- guaranteed.
Steal billions, no problem; torture innocent human beings,
no harm, no foul; lie to Congress, no worries.
Over and over we are told that ours is a nation of laws, and
that everyone stands equal before the law. What a crock of shit. Hey, Mr.
President, tell the truth – we are not the indispensable, exceptional nation that
you keep talking about. We are just as ruthless, brutal, secretive, and
sadistic as any other nation.
We torture. We support dictators who torture. We lie and
falsify, dissemble and obfuscate, start wars on false pretexts, and interfere
in the domestic affairs of other nations.
Exceptional? Hardly.
Hypocritical? Definitely.
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