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For some time now I have been meaning to write an entry talking about the glaring differences between Obama the Candidate and Obama the President. A political blogger, Glenn Greenwald, did a fairly good recap of the hypocrisy of the Obama administration, at least with regards to Obama's campaign "promise" to bring more openness and transparency to the government.
Obama's administration, for all of you campaigning so hard for him last year, has seemingly embraced the Bush administration's stance on dozens of very important policies regarding secrecy.
Most bothersome, and as Mr. Greenwald points out in later entries, is Obama's acceptance of torture. You might be saying to yourself "But CIA-sanctioned torture ended under the Bush administration!" I would agree, although with some reservations given both administrations' views on keeping bad things secret so far. Obama, however, endorses torture by not investigating the people responsible for what most people agree was probably against the Geneva Convention and international law, if not in fact than at least in spirit. If Obama sets a president by which we say that we will not investigate past war crimes committed by US politicians, it opens the doors for current and future politicians, Obama included, to continue to ignore these laws.
We hold other countries accountable to international law. We berate Iran for violently putting down protests. We urge China to get better about human rights. And yet we cannot even investigate the possibility that we went against these very laws ourselves?
No, this is not the "change" people were expecting when they voted for Obama. This seems to be a continuation of Bush's policies.
Obama's administration, for all of you campaigning so hard for him last year, has seemingly embraced the Bush administration's stance on dozens of very important policies regarding secrecy.
Most bothersome, and as Mr. Greenwald points out in later entries, is Obama's acceptance of torture. You might be saying to yourself "But CIA-sanctioned torture ended under the Bush administration!" I would agree, although with some reservations given both administrations' views on keeping bad things secret so far. Obama, however, endorses torture by not investigating the people responsible for what most people agree was probably against the Geneva Convention and international law, if not in fact than at least in spirit. If Obama sets a president by which we say that we will not investigate past war crimes committed by US politicians, it opens the doors for current and future politicians, Obama included, to continue to ignore these laws.
We hold other countries accountable to international law. We berate Iran for violently putting down protests. We urge China to get better about human rights. And yet we cannot even investigate the possibility that we went against these very laws ourselves?
No, this is not the "change" people were expecting when they voted for Obama. This seems to be a continuation of Bush's policies.
