One of the easy moves when doing PR damage control is to identify a scape goat; pile as much of the responsiblity as possible on his shoulders and then kick him out. If your lucky; the outraged public will then take a deep breadth and give you time to do something more substanative; or better yet they will just wander off and stop bothering you.
Obviously Rumsfeld should go. But it would be a huge mistake to pretend that the cancer who’s symptoms those photos reveal will go with him. It’s going to take some very serious surgery to cut that cancer out. Not until we as a nation suffer that operation will there be any hope of reclaiming our historical role in the room of nations.
I am afraid we will never reclaim that honorable position. Damn them. Damn them all. Have they no honor? Have they no conscious? Apparently they have no ideas what they have done to our nation.
Ben, you’ve lost perspective IMHO.
This whole mess is bad business for sure, but I have doubts that it will permanently harm the nation. We fragile humans are pretty much the same everywhere on the globe. Sure we have cultural differences but as individuals, we all suffer pretty much the same weaknesses and capacity for evil. The true measure of the nation will be in how we, with our western democratic principles, handle this mess. Are we transparent, introspective and interested in understanding the problem and doing what needs to be done to prevent it from recurring in the future?
In a world where statist Arab countries with terrorist ties and horrid records on human rights are given a seat on UN human rights councils, I can’t imagine this being held against the US if the administration is sufficiently transparent in resolving the issue. Those who “hold a grudge” simply hate the US; this sorid incident just serves to justify and reinforce their hatred.
B
I guess your clinging to the hope that the cancer doesn’t run deep, that our institutions will cleanse the wound, and that the people of the planet will draw on a well of forgiveness filled by our better days. God I hope so.
But where is the signs this doesn’t run deep? This adminstration has stated it as our policy that American power will reign supreme. This administration has already decided that american citizens can be held indefinately, without trial, without concil. This is the way an imperial power operates and being an imperial power is state policy.
From where does the hope that our institutions will resolve the problem. This adminstration has fought tooth and nail to avoid all attempts at transparency in case after case. Energy, 9/11, medicare, the list is very long.
I think it’s a big mistake to pull the ‘hate america’ card when trying to decide if the billions of people on the planet will forgive us. That only polarizes the discussion. Worldwide the polling numbers are clear. People are scared of us, and they don’t trust us anymore. That’s not hate; that’s a model based on our actions. They will forgive us when our actions indicate we have changed our ways. They ought not forgive us until that happens.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-lappin11may11,1,6496447.story