Every time some new document is released about the Bush administration’s War on Human Rights, I can’t help thinking that what has been released is not nearly as bad as whatever was deemed not releasable. President Obama has received a lot of criticism for disclosing torture memos. But for those of us Chicagoans who are familiar with Barack’s style (i.e. he is not crazy), we know that he probably provided the documents that were just bad enough to get the public to pursue the issue (perhaps forcing the administration to turn over the truly horrible stuff).
Several politicians, including Senator Arlen Specter (R), have said that there is no need to shine light on the Bush years. After all, he said, “This is not Latin America.” He said this unqualified remark in response to Senator Patrick Leahy’s (D) suggestion that some sort of truth commission be established to get the information that everyone knows has been hidden from them. Perhaps we are not as bad as some of the governments in Latin America, but I can’t say that definitively without more information (though a February article in the Christian Science Monitor did point out some similarities).
I guess “truth commission” does sound a little formal. For some it may invoke visions of Nuremberg. But truth commissions are not like that at all. They are often used in countries where dictators have gotten away with their crimes. Commissions like the ones set up in Argentina and in Central America in the 1980s are bodies that investigate, report upon, and acknowledge the truth about past abuses. It is much more a tool for reconciliation than it is a tool for lex talionis (an “eye for an eye”). People who have lost loved ones to government oppression or who have themselves been tortured, raped, or abused in some other way get the precious gift of closure.
In the last decade there has been growing support for the idea that not only do individuals have the right to closure, but also the idea that the public has a collective right to the truth. What Specter and his ilk deny is that we Americans have a right to the truth at all. For them the truth is whatever they say it is. They are Orwellian pigs trying to convince us that their new commandments are just like the ones we had before, only improved. Thou shall not torture has become Thou shall not torture unless national security is at stake. They act as if torture were the latest thing, implying that those of us who still support old-school principles like those found in the Geneva Conventions and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights are stuck wearing last season’s fashion. For them, torture is the new black.
Picture from BoRev.net
Cockroach People 