Obama’s recent glowing comments about the 43rd president surely came as a shock to anyone who still has a functioning memory of the Bush years, writes Nat Parry.
President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama host the unveiling of the official portraits of former President George W. Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush, in the White House, May 31, 2012. (White House, Lawrence Jackson)
By Nat Parry
ESSENTIAL OPINION
The liberal rehabilitation of George W. Bush is now virtually complete, with his successor Barack Obama declaring this week that the 43rd president was committed to the rule of law, despite all evidence to the contrary. In an online fundraiser for presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden Tuesday night, Obama stated that Bush “had a basic regard for the rule of law and the importance of our institutions of democracy.”
Obama, who ran for president in 2008 with promises to restore habeas corpus and uphold the rule of law, went on to claim that when Bush was president, “we cared about human rights” and were committed to “core principles around the rule of law and the universal dignity of people.”
Obama’s comments surely came as a shock to anyone who still has a functioning memory of the Bush years and hasn’t succumbed entirely to the effects of Trump Derangement Syndrome. Rather than being a champion of democratic principles, when Bush left office, he left behind a shameful legacy of upended human rights norms including due process and the legal prohibition against torture.
If 2008 Obama could speak today with 2020 Obama, he might remind himself that Bush had started a “dumb war” in Iraq in violation of the UN Charter, launched a warrantless surveillance program of Americans and that he had established a penal colony in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in violation of the Geneva Conventions.
As Obama himself said in said in 2013, during the Bush years, “we compromised our basic values – by using torture to interrogate our enemies, and detaining individuals in a way that ran counter to the rule of law.”
Bush’s ‘Rule of Law’
U.S. sergeant interrogates a detainee at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq who is chained to his cell wall in a distressing position. (U.S. Government)
At the heart of Bush’s approach to the “rule of law” was the rejection of any independent court evaluation of its detentions. Without judicial review, the U.S. government didn’t need to present any evidence to show that a person actually had ties to Al Qaeda or was otherwise guilty of a crime. The Bush position also held that once designated as Al Qaeda members, individuals have no legal protections against torture.
He dismissed provisions of the Geneva Conventions as “quaint” and offered legal rationales that justify torture in cases of “military necessity.”
Bush’s approach to the “war on terror” was in fact a steady descent into the “dark side,” as Vice President Dick Cheney had called it. A subsequent Senate investigation found that the torture program instituted by the Bush administration following 9/11 employed gruesome techniques such as near drowning, forcing detainees to stand on broken legs, threatening to kill or rape detainees’ family members, forced “rectal feeding” and “rectal hydration.” It also offered disturbing details on a medieval “black site” prison in Afghanistan known as the Salt Pit, where at least one detainee froze to death.
The brutal interrogation sessions lasted in many cases non-stop for days or weeks at a time, leading to effects such as “hallucinations, paranoia, insomnia, and attempts at self-harm and self-mutilation,” and produced little to no useful information. CIA agents had illegally detained 26 of the 119 individuals in CIA custody, and the interrogation techniques used on detainees went beyond the methods that had been approved by the Bush Justice Department or CIA’s headquarters (guidelines that were likely overly permissive in the first place).
Calls for Accountability
When the Senate torture report was released in late 2014, it was met with calls for accountability from around the world. The United Nations, the European Union, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, as well as numerous governments, all demanded that those responsible for the illegal torture program face justice. The U.S. was reminded that as a matter of international law, it was legally obligated to prosecute the perpetrators of the torture program.
Some of the strongest words came from the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counterterrorism Ben Emmerson, who stated unequivocally that senior officials from the Bush administration who sanctioned crimes, as well as the CIA and U.S. government officials who carried them out, must be brought to justice. “It is now time to take action,” the UN rapporteur said.
Needless to say, no one was ever prosecuted by the Obama administration’s Justice Department. And now, Obama not only excuses these abuses, but he actually claims that Bush was committed to “the rule of law and the universal dignity of people.” A charitable explanation for Obama’s comments is that he was trying to draw a distinction between the Trump administration and every other president, and to draw this distinction, he made a clumsy attempt to draw an exaggerated contrast.
Obama’s Damaging Comments
President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama walk with former President George W. Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush after the unveiling of the Bushes’ official portraits at the White House, May 31, 2012. (White House, Chuck Kennedy)
But considering that 6-in-10 Americans now have a favorable view of Bush, almost twice as much as the 33 percent who gave him a favorable mark when he left office in 2009, it should be appreciated how impressionable Americans are and how damaging comments such as Obama’s can be. Much of Bush’s ascent to popularity has come from Democrats, 54 percent of whom now approve of the Bush presidency. Democrats’ change of heart appears to be primarily motivated by Bush’s opposition to Trump, which apparently has absolved him of his many failings while president.
This historic shift in attitudes was abetted by many liberals who have helped refurbish Bush’s image, including daytime talk show host Ellen DeGeneres and former First Lady Michelle Obama.
To hear Barack Obama now making the claim that Bush was committed to the rule of law and human rights is just the latest betrayal of a Democratic Party that has systematically prevented a reckoning for the crimes of the 43rd president, a party that is clearly uninterested in truth or accountability, and is more than willing to rewrite history to advance its political goals.
Only time will tell how America is affected in the long term by this rewriting of history.
Nat Parry is the co-author of “Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush.” Follow him on Twitter: @natparry
This article is from ESSENTIAL OPINION.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
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hXXps://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/DOC_0005996680.pdf Sorry about that, and sorry about this last line:
You see the fix can be in and one still may not be, . . . .until you get that national security briefing. They call that the “clincher’, or in the case of the CIA “Checkmate”.
Are we having fun yet? I’m not but I get it! Cancel the dog damend birthday party and stay at home!
Thanks to all at CN
I was pleased to see a guillotine erected outside the Facebook man’s house in DC. That should communicate popular feeling to the men of commerce. Its sad that we cannot yet erect guillotines outside the State Department, Congress and the White House as they have enacted laws to prevent it.
Now we see this awful article attempting to rehabilitate GWB. We are asked to overlook his role in enabling Cheney and Rumsfeld to destroy the country. That’s too much. If it was possible to control the anger of the population it might be possible to preserve the man and settle for a heartfelt confession but that’s not the way revolutions work. The politician plays his cards and gets the result they give. This is the downside of all those freebies and inside information – win some, lose some. Goodbye George
GW Bush was our Augustus, instituting far more authoritarian mode of governance, without actually changing the sacred Constitution. Obama was our Tiberius, confirming the new approach to governing. Trump is our Caligula, taking our new authoritarianism to extreme. I really hope we don’t get a Claudius installed by the military! History doesn’t repeat itself, but sometes it rhymes.
It’s surprising how America’s hard-core war hawk Presidents Bush, Trump and Clinton were once its hard-core draft dodgers. It seems the one thing they all share in common…apart from an aversion to Vietnam…is a flight or flight instinct – the natural tendency to flee. Not an ounce of fight in ’em.
Fighting is not a presidential qualification. Their disqualifications include being happy to send others to fight wrongful wars, like all recent presidents. Understanding and diplomacy are needed; rarely does fighting help.
Wanna bet that Trump won’t get a respectful obituary from his successors? “He was a true original. He never gave in to his critics and went his own way. We’ll not see his like again, sadly.” You know it’ll happen.
Hitler was a true original also and his SS were “. . . . Just doing their jobs . . . . .!
As for the rehabilitation of “The Village Idiot From Crawford Texas”, Barrack joined a very exclusive club, that club likely voted to make him an offer he couldn’t refuse. If Obama had access to or was enlightened about Bill history in Mena and other places he likely figured what the hell, live the good life and enjoy my family why die like a martyr.
I really don’t think they had to twist Bill Clinton’s arm he was all-in long before he ever became president.
So Obama became a Deep State team player, I guess, sure seems so. We all know once you join that club there is no quitting only dying.
Obama is not so much a disappointment as he is proof of what many have been saying for years, “If you are not morally bankrupt before you become president, you will soon become so.
Maybe it’s time for everyone to drive to D.C. surround the place and make them lock it down. Of course this will have to wait until the plague dies out. If it’s not one thing it’s 35 others.
Remember this no matter what Barrack was right change, the change the country needs comes from outside D.C.! Like I wrote earlier the Mango Mussolini has proven this and it is undeniable. Still here we go again with the dimos, choosing a loser who is the typical Washington insider having no intentions of changing anything.
I do have an idea though. If we all spend as much time writing to our congressmen and women as we do writing here maybe some one will get a clue. Maybe not, one thing is clear though change must be initiated outside D.C..
We all know where the pitch forks are but these people in D.C need a serious wake up call. The guillotine is time tested, simple to build, operate, efficient and portable. Maybe we should overnight a few to D.C. I’m betting they would use them on each other
We have not found the energy or where with all to break the two party hold on us and we need to do so very soon.
Fire them, Fire them Sons a Bitches right now! If you want to create and implement change these people will have to forced to do it or forced out!.
On the other hand if the mango mussolini hangs in there he might kill of the whole bunch by means of a virus.
Obama may have well blown it but he had help from both parties and a country that seemed to have lost it’s will to fight the good political fight.
Thanks CN.
Bush and Obama are both war criminals according to Noam Chomsky—
Most US presidents have been war criminals. Not one war we fought or been involved in has been necessary.
And Noam is a bit smarter than Ellen. Btw, has she ever invited Noam on her show?
The same Noam Chomsky who wants us to vote for another war criminal, Joe Biden….
This country’s government is a practical joke that we have swallowed hook, line and sinker…!
How’s that kool-aid taste, patriot? You forgot to mention the perfidy of the Russians and Chinese in your weepy and self-righteous blatherings.
This comment was directed at the poster “Montgomery J Granger” but was put up top for some reason.
Left out are the nuances of unlawful combatant Islamists and the Law of War. Gitmo detainees were all at least unlawful combatants, and therefore not entitled to the protections (rights) of the Geneva Conventions. Those rights belong only to those who follow the Law of War and whose governments are signators to those laws, in other words, responsible parties. Even with that said, 731 detainees were RELEASED by Presidents Bush and Obama, and NONE were executed, beheaded, blown up, hacked to death, dragged naked and lifeless through the streets, drowned or burned alive. Things our enemies have done to US and/or our allies. In his autobiography, “Decision Points,” George W. Bush claims only “a handful of [Gitmo] detainees were waterboarded, which resulted in obtaining valuable information that saved many lives.” No DoD personnel were ever involved with waterboarding or any Enhanced Interrogation Techniques (EIT). Only trained CIA operatives were involved with EIT, which were legal and approved. In fact, the incarceration mission at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is the best of its kind anywhere, as ICRC physicians I worked with there told me, “No one does [detention operations] better than the US.” Sincerely, MAJ (RET) Montgomery J. Granger, former ranking US Army Medical Department officer with the Joint Detainee Operations Group, Joint Task Force 160, and author: “Saving Grace at Guantanamo Bay: A Memoir of a Citizen Warrior;” narrator for the short documentary film: “Heroes of GITMO.”
How’s that kool-aid taste, patriot? You forgot to mention the perfidy of the Russians and Chinese in your weepy and self-righteous blatherings.
“Gitmo detainees were all at least unlawful combatants” This statement is a complete crock. Many were totally innocent, and were brought in for the bounty offered. As for the “Law of War”, the classification of “unlawful combatant” is a very convenient one. Obama’s administration automatically declared any male over 16 killed by drone strike to be an unlawful combatant. We call murdering civilians “collateral damage” when we do it, we call it terrorism when the designated enemy does it. However, the victim is equally dead no matter what his murder is called. You can put all the lipstick you want on a pig. It’s still a pig.
Sincerely,
Skip Scott, retired merchant seaman who spent over 27 years working with good people from all around the world.
hXXps://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-13184845
hXXps://www.cbc.ca/news/world/most-guantanamo-detainees-are-innocent-ex-bush-official-1.804550
So, it seems that they were not all unlawful combatants not entitled to protection.
Does the “Law of War” allow for countries to fabricate evidence of WMD’s and invade other nation’s on phony pretences?
You’re also a delusional sociopath for your defence of the Gauntanamo Bay torture factory.
…and big time swallower of red, white, and blue Kool-Aid.
“Gitmo detainees were all at least unlawful combatants”
1. The category of ‘unlawful combatant’ was invented by the US government to avoid treating people it captured as prisoners of war.
2. Many in Gitmo were and are never charged with an offence of any kind.
You’re part of the military machine. Open your eyes to reality.
GTMO prisoners were just random individuals, picked up by bounty hunters. Their torturers are the ones who deserve punishment.
Wow. Sometimes freedom of speech seems wasted on the free dumbs.
Left out of almost all reporting on U.S. torture of detainees is the fact that all detainees have a right to not answer questions, except for name, rank, serial number, and an address where relatives can receive mail. All of us who have been in the U.S. military were taught that. There is no individual who falls outside the protections of either the 5th Amendment or the Geneva Conventions. In other words, there is no lawful U.S. government power to extract information from a prisoner who does not wish to provide it.
It is that belief in entitlement to ignore basic constitutional and human rights constraints on government that brands torture as illegal and un-American. Those who participated in torture are anything but patriots.
Does the Law of War include droning wedding parties, hospitals, first responders, funerals, women and children working in fields? Prett sure not, so that makes the U.S. in violation of the Law of War. Ergo, our “soldiers” are actually “enemy combatants” who can be rendered, indefinitely detained and tortured due-process free, right?
This is, frankly, typical of Obama. He will always rewrite history to appease the right wing. I recall that he deliberately–and outrageously–distorted FDR’s record during his first hundred days in order to praise Ronnie Raygun, who napped through his entire time in office.
That he’s now doing the same thing to a sleazy little shit like Little Boots doesn’t surprise me in the least. He’s got to keep the plutocrats happy if going to keep on getting those $400K speaking gigs.
When Obama split with his Pastor, after Rev. Wright’s harsh anti US imperialism sermons became known, I knew Obama was a fraud. Both parents, according to Wayne Madsen, had CIA connections and his first job out of college was a CIA front.
Bush famously derided the Constitution as a “god-damned piece of paper”.
Whatever Obama says, believe the opposite.
Who’s parents had CIA connections?
If you look closely Bush Sr, Clinton, Bush Jr, Obama and Trump theybare playing the same game. Maybe some difference in rhetoric and demeanor, but its basically 1 party with different colors. You need to put aside the 2 party illusion. This is a one party state like China. Chinas CCP actually has multiple parties within the CCP but they don’t differ much (like in the US 2 part system).
Those who control both parties are the multinational corporations and philanthropic billionaires (tax free) who have captured media and agencies within the government (health, military, intelligence, treasury) with a revolving door between industry and government.
They are the Deep State. They determine who we can vote for like Irans Supreme Leader chooses candidate for President. So basically we are half Iran and half China
The other element is the extraordinary control Israel has on both parties. We might as well be an Israeli colony at this point.
Israel’s “control” is via the Religious Right … We Americans are responsible for our crimes, no one else.
Correction – bring Jesus back
I’m hoping this comment hits home to some and that it’s not taken as excusing Obama. His ass was the one on the line though.
In the past I have used a very crass story about what happens to a newly elected president during his security briefings. It references an action taken by the intelligence types, who unceremoniously remove one of the new presidents gonads promising him that if he behaves and is a “Good Boy” he will get it back at the end of his term.
Early in Barrack’s first term I watched as he spoke at some photo op or what ever and he stated the needed change cannot come from inside Washington. I have looked in vain for that story and drew blanks until today when I came across this example of a similar statement much later on in his term.
ABC NEWS Sept. 20, 2012: The President was speaking at a “Meet The Candidates ” forum hosted by the Spanish network Univision when he was asked about his biggest failure.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/obama-change-washington-inside/story
The President said not enacting immigration reform was his biggest failure, but went on to discuss his 2008 campaign promise to bring change to Washington.
“The most important lesson I’ve learned is that you cannot change Washington from the inside. You can only change it from the outside,” Obama said.
“That’s how I got elected and that’s how big accomplishments like health care got done, because we mobilized the American people to speak out. That’s how we were able to cut taxes for middle class families, ” the president he said.
You may want to read that again and again until it occurs to you M.M. has done the same thing, he riles his base and he now has a grass roots uprising against him. He has mobilized the American people good bad land ugly for the worse it seems.
You bet Barrack had learned something. Why D.C. is called the swamp!
When democrats did not support him 100%, see democratic votes on democratic issues in congress, I knew he was done, the republicans smelling blood made damned sure of it. . The democrats inevitably find a way to lose. Can you imagine the roar and hollowing from republicans if anyone dared yell at the Mango Mussolini “YOU LIE!”.
Moreover can you image if B.O. had voiced opinions that mobilized only blacks , the ensuing backlash, what he would have been accused of. This isn’t difficult to figure, the deep state advisors let him know exactly where he stood, hell maybe they showed him a film they have of the Kennedy murder no one else has seen. Anyone have any idea how many threats were made against his life to this point in time?
Sadly, very sadly for this black man he found himself owned by the “other” and by his own hand. But he was a messenger in that he warned us. Doddamn the democrats for getting it wrong, . .. . time after time!
In our time of great peril we best not turn on each other in these unconstructive ways. So much of what Nat Perry writes is undeniably true but imagine what would have happened had Barrack Obama told the Deep Staters where to get off and they had killed him. You think the country has problems now, Whoa Boy!
He was damned if he did, (would demos back him, they hadn’t showed they would) and damned if he didn’t. Set up by the two party system for failure.
. . . – – – . . .
Thanks CN
I have lost all patience with those who excuse Obama’s political cowardice with hints that he faced death threats. There is no “I’m scared” exception to his oath to faithfully fulfill and execute the laws of the nation. He knew that when he was running for President. If he was not willing to risk his life, he was not qualified for the office he sought. After all, he had no problem ordering others to risk their lives in a succession of unlawful wars of aggression.
He was elected to be a leader, not a follower.
Paul we all have our opinions and I’ll take you at your word.
That said we can ad to this list of those “not willing to risk his life, he was not qualified for office he sought,” and remainder of what you said especially, “he had no problem ordering other to risk their lives in a succession of unlawful wars of aggression. ”
LBJ, Richard Nixon, Ron Reagan, Bill Clinton, Bush 43, and the over bearing , ever present Mango Mussolini. Seems these traits are pretty common, so I guess you are right but lets give credit where credit is due.
“We tortured some folks.”
The constitutional “expert” BO must have also forgotten that little Georgy once said of the constitution – “It’s only a god-damned piece of paper.”
Look kiddies, here’s what it’s all about. The election, and making the distinction between “responsible” political commodities like GHW & GW Bush and the uncouth and untrainable Trump. This is what is at the heart of the rehabilitation of little Georgy. If the GOP could program Reagan Democrats, then the DNC will germinate Biden Republicans.
Shrub Bush is so dumb he still hasn’t figured out why his Poppy and adopted brother Billy Bubba
would always stop laughing when he stumbled into the room..
Obama, like Bush, got a place in the most exclusive club on this planet. As such, this club must have its song:
All: We are the mediocre presidents.
You won’t find our faces on dollars or on cents!
There’s Taylor, there’s Tyler,
There’s Fillmore and there’s Hayes.
There’s William Henry Harrison,
Harrison: I died in thirty days!
All: We… are… the…
Adequate, forgettable,
Occasionally regrettable
Caretaker presidents of the U-S-A!
—-
Of course, “adequate, forgettable” is a hugely optimistic self-assessment. BTW, is it a plan to replace Harrison with Biden?
Thank you. I am glad for journalists that help keep us honest. We really need to be kept honest more
now than ever.
“Needless to say, no one was ever prosecuted by the Obama administration’s Justice Department.”
Wasn’t John Kirkau charged, convicted and spent time in prison for blowing the whistle on Bush’s torture
while Obama was president? As I recall he was the 6th whistle blower charged under Obama.
Agree, consider the source: praise of a war criminal from a war criminal bragging about how good he was at killing people.
This is where we are with American exceptionalism!
While I voted for Obama in 2008, I declined to do that again in 2012 and largely have not had an unqualified nice thing to say about the man since.
Yes I remember the neo-CON OBAMA Slogan 2008 U.S. presidential campaign titled “HOPE”
The next slogan was titled “DOPE” as it it involves
bringing some class back to the Bush Empire.
The third program is called “ROPE. It’s how you enforce
American diplomacy so they tell no tales.
If u add a G at the front of the third Slogan, you get a picture of
what the 2 candidates apparently DO but won’t endorse. WOW.
Oh yes, the lesser of 2 evils is still the platform. Hilarious if it wasn’t so serious.
Straight, gay, trans ,black white, yellow, red and brown, whatever, it’s the same puppet President..
There is one party called the Establishment and they don’t care which Wing you belong too.
(As long as you don’t go against the party.) Sure sounds like the Mafia to me.
What a joke DemocraZy has become. Just name the third party the Imperialist party and get this lie over with already.
Maybe, the people of Cheran have a better understanding how to start a Democracy..
hXXps://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-37612083
Since when does the “rule of Law” include lying the country into a needless war which killed 100’s of thousands of people and nearly destroyed an entire country. Obama has, over the past few months, done all he could to tarnish his reputation as a reasoned political leader.
I was about to make a similar comment when I read yours. One war criminal lies about another war criminal and the public swallows it whole. America has a “memory hole” the size of the Grand Canyon. It is disgusting. I wonder if Orwell would be amazed at how his predictions have been surpassed by 21st century reality.
I believe Empire requires each new president to become a “made guy” shortly after inauguration or become a target himself.
This was meant in reply to John Chuckman.
Clinton was made at Mena, Obama groomed, and the Bush family is cia-personified.
Orwell was not particularly pto-US. He liked Henry Miller, but as an individual.
I’m sure both Obama and Bush Jr. will be sainted. The victors write history, and our government is the victor in its perpetual cold war against those of us that disagree with it. Everything else will be pushed to obscurity, and those that believe it deemed mentally ill.
History repeats itself.
very correct,is done fore countless of years,the evil is in charge
Thank you Nat Parry for this fine piece exposing the fake hope and change darling of the Democrats – Obama. I voted for him once and on his second day in office, when he announced his cabinet (one that he did not select but was actually selected for him) I realized that I was totally fooled by this sweet talking con man – it would be business as usual with the splineless party in charge. As awful as tRUMP is I wouldn’t even consider casting a vote for the dismal inauthentic opposition party ever again. I’ve never voted Republican and never will.
The denouement of Obama sin Laden, of whose 2008 increasing vagueness I was suspicious but chose the lesser evil.
Thanks to Nat Parry: “the claim that Bush was committed to … human rights is just the latest betrayal” by the DNC.
“I once was lost, but now am found
Was blind but now I see” – Amazing Grace
Singing this tune at the black church elevated Obama as some kind of paragon of Christian values. Now who is blind?
I’m pretty sure the Christian God does not approve of a genocidal war criminal.
Sorry, Barack, I don’t see how Bush is a great guy now. To me, this more than cancels out anything Obama did that was decent. To praise someone as purely evil as Bush, is as bad as it gets. I have zero respect for him, and if Biden is no better than him, we’re really screwed. One must assume, that the mind of Ellen Degenerate, is sociopathic. To forgive and forget the sins and atrocities of the Iraq war, or the Katrina non-response, or the sins of the financial sub-prime collapse, is totally and completely pathological.
Obama’s opponents in the presidential races were Romney and McCain. Both are terrifying. Romney had no persona of his own and would have been directed by both corporate America and the military. McCain never thought of any war that he did not like. Both would have been catastrophic for America and the world. Obama was bad and seemed to make a sudden switch in his personality after or during the Ukraine coup and the ouster of a democratically elected government. His adventure into Syria has caused hundreds of thousands of deaths and immigrants. Any objective observer will see this as international criminal acts.
McCain on the other hand is an unknown but likely would have been equally militant on the world stage. Obama in retrospect may have been the best choice. Unfortunately not one was good for the world at large and and we are the lesser as a world because of him.
Exactly what did oBOMBa do that was decent? Aside from protecting the banks that busted the global economy and a massive social welfare program for health insurance corporations …
It is remarkable that no one mentions the genocide in Yemen which was Obama’s trademark. Not only did Obama pass National Emergencies with sanctions against Yemen in 2012 (and later against Venezuela and Ukraine along with his wars in Libya, Syria and most of central Africa (Burundi, Central African Republic, Sudan, Somalia and others), Obama droned an American citizen and set up other, later droning strikes against his 16 year old son and 8 year old daughter in Yemen, and acquiesced in the slaughter and genocide of Yemenis by the Saudis, in return for the Saudis near silence on his Iran nuclear deal (as I believe Joe Luria pointed out). The US was a major cause of at least 100,000 deaths in Yemen, due to famine, disease and war.
Then when Trump was elected, Yemen suddenly became a focus of the Democrats, with Bernie Sanders decrying Yemeni genocide under Trump. Evidently genocide was fine under Obama, but reprehensible under Trump.
Hear hear
“Obama’s recent glowing comments about the 43rd president surely came as a shock to anyone who still has a functioning memory of the Bush years”
Not really.
Bush represents Neocon Wars Chapter I; Obama, Neocon Wars Chapter II.
Obama has a murderous record, and he created millions of refugees.
Look what he did to Libya, to Syria, to Ukraine, and he put in place the industrial-scale Extrajudicial Killing system, including the killing of undesirable Americans abroad.
He once laughed about how good he was at “this killing stuff.”
Combined with the charming boyish smile, the facts suggest a psychopath or at least extreme narcissist, much like Trump, just a different style.
And he left office worth tens of millions of dollars. A former nontenured lecturer in Constitutional law.
The perception of Obama as decent is just an illusion. Even if he started out that way, he almost instantly changed in office.
That is how America works.
Thank you Chuck. It made me feel better to read your reasoned indictment of ofucka! I hate that Asshole so much that I can hardly see straight. I’m sure blood vessels burst in my eyes whenever I hear of his latest three card monte shills. And finally someone has called him by his right title: Psychopath. He makes me puke!
Quite, Mr Chuckman, Quite. (How did Obama get all that money???? One wonders.)
I would only add to Mr Parry’s piece Bush’s illegal invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. The former based on well understood, created and disseminated lies, the latter after, I do believe, the Taliban said it would hand over Bin Laden (I could well be wrong with this impression). Both of these wars have devastated the peoples and lands of these two nation states; and the US refuses (no matter what the Strumpet says – all wind) to leave. Once the US military occupies a country it *stays* – for whatever nefarious reason the corporate-capitalist-imperialists hold in mind. (Only Vietnam has been able to force the US out. Perhaps the Iraqis [too many seem to be in US hands/pockets] and Syrians could learn something from the Vietnamese.)
That is how America works.
Sadly yes so very true
Sept 2015 a batch of JFK papers – files were released. In this group a copy of a second presidential daily brief, 11-22-63 can be found that CIA sent to LBJ in Texas.
hXXps://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/docs/DOC_ooo5996680.pdf
Cover page , 1-4, title reads, THE PRESIDENTS INTELLIGENCE CHECKLIST, issued by the Central Intelligence Agency, 22 NOVEMBER 1963.
page 2- 4 reads. In honor of President Kennedy, for whom the Presidents Intelligence Checklist was first written on 17 June 1961
page 3 – 4 read For this day, the Checklist Staff can find no word more fitting than a verse quoted by the President to a group of newspapermen the day he learned of the presence of Soviet Missiles in Cuba.
page 4 – 4 reads. Bullfight critics ranks in rows,
Crowd the enormous plaza full
But only one is there who knows – knows is underlined
And he is the man who fights the bull.
Based on what we learn here by this message being sent, any man who runs for president must be willing to give his life to do the job he wants done. Or maybe not.
Nixon was already on the inside, Carter should have known better and didn’t, Reagan was clueless, 41 was in on writing the book on this subject, 42 was all in before he got elected and 43 was hard wired to the “party line” and it showed, 911 and the democrats led a lamb to slaughter.
That is how American politics really work. The fix is always in, think not refer to torero Dimingo Ortega’s bull fighter poem.
Kennedy gave his life, not one man who has held the seat since has done so as courageously at he did. And although I cannot be positive I don’t think JFK ran and hid in a bunker during the Cuban Missile crisis! And he was murdered while the CIA looked on knowing something was up.
Americans can jump on Obama for being less than candid about his intentions I suppose. Not me. I actually do think they are all crazy to want the job knowing what we all seem to know about how things go down. You see the fix can be in and one still may not be, . . . . . until you get that national security briefing. They call that the “clincher”. on in the case of the CIA “Checkmate”
Thanks CN