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Cheney, Rumsfeld and the Con of Perpetual War

Submitted by Ken Watts on Tue, 06/26/2007 - 09:31

Andrew Sullivan comments this morning on new evidence that Cheney and Rumsfeld were behind the policies of torture.

The biggest thing I glean from the Cheney series in the WaPo is how early and decisively, Cheney and Rumsfeld decided that this war would be won by torture. No war ever has, but they knew better. More to the point: this issue was never seriously debated in an open and honest fashion in the White House. It was simply done - and done in a way that circumvented the law, the other responsible parties in the administration, and the constitution, under a philosophy that there are no constraints on executive power in wartime. Wartime, it's important to remember, is now permanent.

I agree with everything he says, except the last sentence in the quote above, which I'm not sure he means as incontrovertible fact.

A big piece of the answer to our current foreign policy disaster is to step back, admit we were wrong, and do what should have been done from the beginning: treat terrorism as a criminal act, rather than an act of war.

As long as terrorists can draw nations into wars against each other, providing fertile ground for the promotion of terrorism and the training of new terrorists, we will be permanently at war. And it is to the advantage of imperialists like Cheney and Rumsfeld to create that situation, and with it the excuse to dismantle our democracy and line their own pockets.

On the other hand, a recognition that terrorists are not nations, but criminals, and that a steady diplomacy aimed at undermining the false legitimacy of the their status and gaining international cooperation in hunting them down and bring them to trial, would go a long way toward protecting our democratic institutions at home, and eliminating the dangers from terrorism worldwide.

Our current policies only serve to enhance that false legitimacy, and give cover to another kind of criminal act, centered at the seat of our own government.

And labeling our fight against terror as "war", which it is not, in fact or in law, was the first step toward the mess we now have.

When you find yourself in a hole...