Being the Change I Wish to See

If you haven’t read the previous posts I’ve written about war and peace, national security, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the atrocities that were committed under the Bush administration, please read through the categories “civil rights and justice”, “terrorism” and “war and peace”. This post is another piece of a huge chunk of history being made week-by-week as more information is uncovered about Bush administration policies; especially foreign policy, war policy, and blatant violations of the law and U.S. Constitution.

Tom Ridge was the first Secretary of Homeland Security under the Bush administration. His book

The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege…And How We Can Be Safe Again

was just published, and he’s already back-peddling from what he said about politicization of raising or lowering the security threat level. Why is he backing down from his statements that he thought raising the threat level may have been politically motivated? Did somebody get to him? He also claims he left DHS after Bush’s first term because that was the agreement he had originally made with the administration when he came on board. He doesn’t explain this in the book, and called his language a poor choice of words.

Please watch the following video of the first segment of his interview with Rachel Maddow on September 1 (13 minutes):

Tom Ridge wrote about the botched response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. He was no longer the Secretary and let the DHS have it in the book. (6 minute video, same interview):

I think the slip of saying “heart burn” instead of “heart break” is telling. The government seems to see the whole thing as a bad case of heart burn for them. His disgust over what happened because of the actions of an agency of which he was the former Secretary was evident.

His statements about FEMA and DHS not being responsible for not evacuating the poor, handicapped, and hospitals and nursing homes is false. As soon as the President declares an area a disaster the Stafford Act goes into effect, nationalizing everything in the disaster area, and that authority is retroactive 24 hours. So the federal government was fully responsible for the evacuation of New Orleans. Though the state can still act and Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin should have had plans in place to get those people out, the feds were in charge. State and local government are culpable, but FEMA and DHS were responsible.

Following is part 3 of the interview (10 minutes) with Former Governor Ridge debating Rachel about the decision for the Iraq War.

Does Mr. Ridge really buy it that we had national security reasons to go into Iraq? Does he really believe he would sell the Iraq war to the American people knowing then what he knows now? Does he really believe the whole thing hung on faulty intelligence? Does he believe it was not based on a highly politicized forgone conclusion that we were going into Iraq because the Administration already decided to do it? That they were combing the intelligence for any piece of evidence they could highlight to justify the war?

If he really believes what he’s saying, he is naive. I strongly believe the Cheney/Bush administration had decided to invade Iraq for their oil and to get rid of Saddam Hussein. It was clear to me that Colin Powell was struggling through his presentation to the U.N. to convince them that we had clear evidence of WMDs in Iraq. Secretary Powell’s body language and hesitated speech made it clear that he didn’t believe what he was saying.

I believe our former administration would and did commit our blood and treasure to invade Iraq because they wanted to. History will show this Iraq war was by choice, and we were acting imperialistically. It will not be looked on kindly in the future.

One of the things I truly love about The Rachel Maddow Show is that she does long-form interviews with guests. This interview took 31 minutes of actual content of the roughly 43 minutes of content produced for each one-hour show. You get 17 minutes of commercials per hour of broadcast time. Another thing I love so much about TRMS is Rachel has very civil, though sometimes heated, debates with guests with whom she disagrees or who disagree with her. These are the kinds of debates that should be going on in Congress over the issues our country needs to resolve.

On September 2, Rachel reflected and commented on her interview with Former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge. Her reflections are about the big picture consequences of people like Tom Ridge not stepping up to the plate and distancing themselves from the Bush administration and the continued protagonism of the Bush/Cheney Doctrine (9 minutes):

I agree with Rachel. The failure of the GOP to admit regret and show any remorse or investigate the Bush administration’s leadership role and acknowledge that mistakes were made is the primary reason it no longer has credibility and won’t return to power for a long time, if ever. I am saddened that the two party system we rely on in American political discourse has completely broken down.

My questions are: Do we ever get the GOP back as a thinking and intelligent party that can once again take part in real debate of the facts of the issues facing us? Are we destined to remain a one-party system? Will another party rise up and become the other major political party in America?

The book is The Test of Our Times: America Under Siege…And How We Can Be Safe Again by Tom Ridge.

Technorati Tags: Dick Cheney, GOP disgrace, Iraq war, Planet Cheney, Rachel Maddow, The Rachel Maddow Show, The Test of Our Times, Tom Ridge

written by Sherri Joubert \\ tags: Dick Cheney, GOP disgrace, Iraq war, Planet Cheney, Rachel Maddow, The Rachel Maddow Show, The Test of Our Times, Tom Ridge

Early this summer, Rachel Maddow facilitated a fascinating, compelling and extremely important discussion and multimedia presentation on accountability for the “War on Terror” and on torture carried out by the U.S. and sanctioned by our policies. Those on the panel were: Ron Suskind, Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez, and Vince Warren, along with Rachel.

Be sure to expand it to full-screen. You’ll miss things if you watch it in such a tiny screen.

If the video doesn’t play for you, or you can’t expand it to full screen, you can access it directly at LinkTV’s website here:

Blueprint for Accountability: Working the Dark Side

The show is 84 minutes short, so grab a snack and a drink before you sit down to watch it. I say “short” because the time passed really fast when I was watching it. Phrases that come to my mind as I watched are:

• moral courage
• moral conviction
• we failed to remember that the people we hold in detention, rightly or wrongly, are human beings and must be treated with the respect and dignity of human beings; we cannot dehumanize our enemies
• breach of faith of our institutions that were designed to stop what happened; our institutions from top to bottom failed; why?
• whether or not torture works doesn’t matter; it’s illegal
• the Geneva Conventions and the U.S. Constitution cannot be violated without severe consequences to those who violate them (long prison sentences at hard labor, life imprisonment, possibly the death penalty)
• without real fear of those consequences, we won’t be able to stop future Americans from committing the same war crimes
• torture doesn’t work
• those who stood up and called foul against a rogue regime (the Bush Administration) were eliminated from the system; they were fired for doing what is right
• not enough people of real moral courage who knew we were doing it wrong got up and demanded that it all stop; had enough people stood up against the Bush administration, they could not have continued these acts
• we’re the bad guys now, and it will take a very long time to be viewed by the world as the good guys again
• if we don’t hold all who were involved accountable, no matter how high up the chain of command they were, we will never regain American moral authority and moral strength in the world
• the reason we were the good guys is we lived by the rule of law and America’s moral values and those were sacrosanct
• the Bush Administration, in the name of we the American people, committed war crimes and must be held accountable
• we are either a country for the rule of law, or we are not
• if we are no longer a country for the rule of law we have opened the gates of hell and the consequences will be severe and long
• we must prosecute those who committed war crimes as if they were Nazis or Imperialist Japanese from World War II; there should be no more tolerance of our leaders committing such crimes than there was for those of the Axis Powers then
• we the people must do whatever it legally takes to hold all those involved in war crimes accountable and not stop until everyone involved is investigated and made to account for their actions

I am relieved that there is a Blueprint for Accountability and that our country’s problems and the ones we inflict on the world are being addressed by people who can make things change. You can help by donating to these organizations and spreading the word about the programs. The more people who watch and become involved the better.

This is the first show in the series sponsored by the Culture Project, and media partner Link TV.  There will be a new program each month. Check at the links to view old and new shows.

Technorati Tags: Accountability for Torture, Blueprint for Accountability, Center for Constitutional Rights, Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez, Rachel Maddow, Ron Suskind, Vince Warren, Working the Dark Side

written by Sherri Joubert \\ tags: Accountability for Torture, Blueprint for Accountability, Center for Constitutional Rights, Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez, Rachel Maddow, Ron Suskind, Vince Warren, Working the Dark Side