A Decent nation Would Have Impeached Bush and Obama

How long can a nation, even one as powerful as the United States, continue to destabilize, terrorize and immiserate millions of people and fail to reap consequences for its actions? The fact that the numbers of jihadists and terrorist acts are on a massive increase is indicative that the policies are not just wrong, but counterproductive. Nonetheless, they are continued by administration after administration.

The Obama administration has expanded violent military and intelligence interventions to more than half of the countries of the world:

In his book "The One Percent Doctrine," journalist Ron Suskind reported on CIA plans, unveiled in September 2001 and known as the "Worldwide Attack Matrix," for "detailed operations against terrorists in 80 countries." At about the same time, then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld proclaimed that the nation had embarked on "a large multi-headed effort that probably spans 60 countries." By the end of the Bush years, the Pentagon would indeed have special operations forces deployed in 60 countries around the world.

It has been the Obama administration, however, that has embraced the concept far more fully and engaged the region even more broadly. Last year, the Washington Post reported that U.S. had deployed special operations forces in 75 countries, from South America to Central Asia. Recently, however, U.S. Special Operations Command spokesman Colonel Tim Nye told me that on any given day, America's elite troops are working in about 70 countries, and that its country total by year's end would be around 120.

Since Obama's policies seem to be making enemies faster than they can be murdered by the vast armory at his disposal, surely one day America's enemies will outnumber its friends.

Then there is the effect that inevitably happens when countries are at war - the tactics that are used against foreign populations are eventually used against the home country's people. It shows up in the militarization of police forces and tactics. It also turns up in places that you'd never expect, like the oil and gas industry hiring military psy-ops experts to fight back against citizen and media opposition to fracking:

Matt Pitzarella, head of the public relations team at the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based natural gas corporation, Range Resources, openly admitted that his corporation utilizes psychological warfare (psyops) military veterans as community relations professionals, hired to apply the skills gained on the periphery for work to be done here at home.

The oil and gas industry apparently feels that it is fighting an insurgency:

Matt Carmichael, External Affairs Manager at Anadarko Petroleum Corporation, suggested three things to attendees during his presentation:

"If you are a PR representative in this industry in this room today, I recommend you do three things. These are three things that I've read recently that are pretty interesting.

"(1) Download the U.S. Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Manual [audible gasps from the audience], because we are dealing with an insurgency. There's a lot of good lessons in there, and coming from a military background, I found the insight in that extremely remarkable. (2) With that said, there's a course provided by Harvard and MIT twice a year, and it's called 'Dealing With an Angry Public.' Take that course. Tied back to the Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency [Field] Manual, is that a lot of the officers in our military are attending this course. It gives you the tools, it gives you the media tools on how to deal with a lot of the controversy that we as an industry are dealing with. (3) Thirdly, I have a copy of "Rumsfeld's Rules." You're all familiar with Donald Rumsfeld -- that's kind of my bible, by the way, of how I operate."

People who want to preserve their water, air and land resources are of course not the only civilians targeted by military psy-ops. The military thinks that it's a great tactic to use on US Senators, too.

Now these examples of Obama's policies are indeed bad, but it's not like he is deploying the technology of an authoritarian state; engaging in mass, dragnet surveillance of citizens; asking people to rat out their co-workers or neighbors, acquaintances or even people spotted in public based upon broad "risk" profiles generated by the government; or targeting people based upon their religious or political beliefs or the success of their online activism.

Oops, they do that stuff.

There can be little doubt that the policies of the Bush and Obama administrations will continue if there is impunity. As was shown by David Petraeus at his ill-fated nomination hearings for CIA director, the powers will be shamelessly requested:

As the Los Angeles Times reported, [David Petraeas] the highly-decorated general told senators in his confirmation hearing as Obama's new CIA director that "humane" questioning standards mandated by the Army Field Manual are almost always sufficient to persuade detainees to talk. But he said that "there should be discussion ... by policymakers and by Congress" about something "more than the normal techniques" for use in special cases where there is perceived to be imminent catastrophic danger.

"That David Petraeus quote is a sign of what to worry about in the future," said Karen Greenberg, executive director of the New York University Center on Law and Security and a scholar of detainee policy.

"We're not a nation you can rely on not to torture," she said.

Obama's current CIA director, John Brennan, is still shilling for torture and insists that the CIA bureaucracy will eagerly support it:

CIA Director John Brennan gave no ground to his critics during a press conference on Thursday, singing his agency's praises and saying it "did a lot of things right" in its interrogation program. ...

Brennan's dismissive response to the report was manifest in his refusal to even use the word "torture," instead referring multiple times to the Bush-administration euphemism of choice: "enhanced interrogation techniques," or EITs.

Brennan also left open the possibility that some of the torture tactics currently prohibited by President Obama could return in the future. Some torture critics have said that could happen, because the people responsible for torture have never been held accountable and remain unbowed.

"We are not contemplating at all getting back into the interrogation program," Brennan said.

As for the future, he said, "I defer to future policymakers."

There was a time when the Congress itself was interested in redressing the wrongs of a national security state that had overstepped its bounds. The current Congress does not appear to have that sort of concern for supporting and defending the Constitution in service to their constituents. Given that a culture of impunity encourages the continuation of corruption and infelicitous policies that are destructive of civil liberties, there should be a limit to the negligent political malpractice we are willing to tolerate in this expansion of abusive executive powers. The Democrats have avoided prosecuting several presidents for political convenience; it appears that they need some considerable motivational support to do the right thing. The American people, in the past absence of a Congress that responded to its demands, have stood up a sustained campaign to demand the end of wars and executive overreach when denied it by a flawed system bent on insulating itself from change.

Such an effort may again be required. Impeachment and prosecutions are desperately needed.