Right Wing Deception

It's very well documented that the Bush administration left office with a legacy that includes a devastated Iraq, the US economy poised on depression, and a torture tarnished international reputation. However, there are those of the reactionary right-wing who are sowing seeds of deception by trying to re-write history that paints a favorable picture of the Bush administration's legacy and sets the Obama administration up for failure.

In a piece called War Is Over (If You Want It),Eric Alterman points out the concerted effort by some neoconservative thinkers to set up Obama for failure by calling Bush's Iraq War a success by redefining what "success" is and how Obama's actions will probably destroy that so-called victory. The truth is that the Iraq War left the overall terrorist threat to the United States higher now than before the war. Also, the Iraq War, according to our own intelligence agencies, has helped spawn Islamic radicalism not destroy it. Bush left our nation in greater peril then it was when he took office. So, Bush didn't leave Obama with a success in Iraq. Rather, Bush left a lost war and a shattered country (not to mention over a million dead Iraqi civilians and two million refugees) with no clear or clean way out for US forces.

Elsewhere, Glenn Greenwald notices the "bizarre reaction to war crimes allegations" in the US as compared to the UK where it seems more obvious that investigations are needed. Greenwald takes a careful look at how the BBC and the Guardian discuss the possibility of government sponsored torture. He writes:

Notice what is missing from these accounts. There is nobody arguing that the dreary past should simply be forgotten in order to focus on the important and challenging future. There's no snide suggestion that demands to investigate serious allegations of criminality are driven by petty vengeance or partisan score-settling. Nobody suggests that it's perfectly permissible for government officials to commit serious crimes -- including war crimes -- as long as they had nice motives or were told that it was OK to do these things by their underlings, or that the financial crisis (which Britain has, too) precludes any investigations, or that whether to torture is a mere "policy dispute." Also missing is any claim that these crimes are State Secrets that must be kept concealed in order to protect British national security.

Instead, the tacit premise of the discussion is that credible allegations of criminality -- even if committed by high government officials, perhaps especially then -- compel serious criminal investigations.

Meanwhile, we in America continue to ignore and leave unpunished the heinous atrocities left in the wake of the War on Terror and the Iraq and Afghanistan Warsl. Likely criminal suspects like George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice get a free ride in the American media and the US judicial system. What hypocrites we are when we criticize other governments for their atrocities and how little advice others, like Pakistan and Iran, should take from us. Without justice, our moral authority is severally diminished.

Finally, and the thing that's hitting home hardest, is slow train-wreck and economic implosion of the US economy. Robert Reich notices how, again, Obama is being positioned for failure by the likes of Lou Dobbs, the Wall Street Journal editorial page, and Republican Fox News propaganda. The argument is that Obama is responsible for the economic collapse that happened under Bush's watch. Along with that, the seeds of confusion are being sown to muddy the distinction between socialism and communism (a Cold War tradition) and between capitalism and un-fettered free market orthodoxy. I've even heard Christian organizations arguing against Obama's somewhat social democratic approach in favor of unfettered free market capitalism which is God's choice.

So, beware! The radical right-wing is actively trying to undermine anything the Obama administration does, and at any cost, in an effort to make itself look good for upcoming elections. What's at stake are the livelihoods and lives of Americans. Again, its the little guy, us cogs in the machine, that pay the price with foreclosed homes, lost jobs, and dangerous military careers where war perpetual war with corporate profits are the goals.