[Vision2020] NYT Paul Krugman "Just Trust Us"

Wed, 12 May 2004 07:20:01 -0700

Pat's gonna have one helluva list.  I figured it'd get long around here.

DC

-----Original Message-----
From: vision2020-admin@moscow.com [mailto:vision2020-admin@moscow.com]
On Behalf Of Carl Westberg
Sent: Wednesday, May 12, 2004 7:12 AM
To: vision2020@moscow.com
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] NYT Paul Krugman "Just Trust Us"

Pat, if you would be so kind, please add me to that list, also.  Thanks.

                                            Carl Westberg Jr.

>From: "JSullivan" <jsullivan@moscow.com>
>To: "Pat Kraut" <pkraut@moscow.com>, "vision2020" 
><vision2020@moscow.com>
>Subject: Re: [Vision2020] NYT Paul Krugman "Just Trust Us"
>Date: Tue, 11 May 2004 20:43:52 -0700
>
>I concur with Ms. Pall 100%. So add me to your list Pat.
>
>Janesta Carcich Sullivan
>   ----- Original Message -----
>   From: Pat Kraut
>   To: vision2020
>   Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2004 8:02 PM
>   Subject: Re: [Vision2020] NYT Paul Krugman "Just Trust Us"
>
>
>   You would.
>     ----- Original Message -----
>     From: Linda Pall
>     To: vision2020@moscow.com
>     Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2004 8:59 AM
>     Subject: [Vision2020] NYT Paul Krugman "Just Trust Us"
>
>
>     Dear Visionaries,
>
>     I thought this column was right on the money.
>
>     All the best,
>     Linda Pall
>
>     
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------
>-----
>
>
>
>
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------
>-----
>
>     May 11, 2004
>     OP-ED COLUMNIST
>     Just Trust Us
>     By PAUL KRUGMAN
>
>
>     idn't you know, in your gut, that something like Abu Ghraib would
>eventually come to light?
>
>     When the world first learned about the abuse of prisoners, 
>President
>Bush said that it "does not reflect the nature of the American people."

>He's right, of course: a great majority of Americans are decent and
good. 
>But so are a great majority of people everywhere. If America's record
is 
>better than that of most countries - and it is - it's because of our 
>system: our tradition of openness, and checks and balances.
>
>     Yet Mr. Bush, despite all his talk of good and evil, doesn't 
>believe
>in that system. From the day his administration took office, its slogan
has 
>been "just trust us." No administration since Nixon has been so
insistent 
>that it has the right to operate without oversight or accountability,
and 
>no administration since Nixon has shown itself to be so little
deserving of 
>that trust. Out of a misplaced sense of patriotism, Congress has
deferred 
>to the administration's demands. Sooner or later, a moral catastrophe
was 
>inevitable.
>
>     Just trust us, John Ashcroft said, as he demanded that Congress 
>pass
>the Patriot Act, no questions asked. After two and a half years, during

>which he arrested and secretly detained more than a thousand people,
Mr. 
>Ashcroft has yet to convict any actual terrorists. (Look at the actual 
>trials of what Dahlia Lithwick of Slate calls "disaffected bozos who
watch 
>cheesy training videos," and you'll see what I mean.)
>
>     Just trust us, George Bush said, as he insisted that Iraq, which
>hadn't attacked us and posed no obvious threat, was the place to go in
the 
>war on terror. When we got there, we found no weapons of mass
destruction 
>and no new evidence of links to Al Qaeda.
>
>     Just trust us, Paul Bremer said, as he took over in Iraq. What is 
>the
>legal basis for Mr. Bremer's authority? You may imagine that the
Coalition 
>Provisional Authority is an arm of the government, subject to U.S. law.
But 
>it turns out that no law or presidential directive has ever established
the 
>authority's status. Mr. Bremer, as far as we can tell, answers to
nobody 
>except Mr. Bush, which makes Iraq a sort of personal fief. In that
fief, 
>there has been nothing that Americans would recognize as the rule of
law. 
>For example, Ahmad Chalabi, the Pentagon's erstwhile favorite, was
allowed 
>to gain control of Saddam's files - the better to blackmail his
potential 
>rivals.
>
>     And finally: Just trust us, Donald Rumsfeld said early in 2002, 
>when
>he declared that "enemy combatants" - a term that turned out to mean 
>anyone, including American citizens, the administration chose to so 
>designate - don't have rights under the Geneva Convention. Now people 
>around the world talk of an "American gulag," and Seymour Hersh is
exposing 
>My Lai all over again.
>
>     Did top officials order the use of torture? It depends on the 
>meaning
>of the words "order" and "torture." Last August Mr. Rumsfeld's top 
>intelligence official sent Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the commander of
the 
>Guantбnamo prison, to Iraq. General Miller recommended that the guards
help 
>interrogators, including private contractors, by handling prisoners in
a 
>way that "sets the conditions" for "successful interrogation and 
>exploitation." What did he and his superiors think would happen?
>
>     To their credit, some supporters of the administration are 
>speaking
>out. "This is about system failure," said Senator Lindsey Graham, a 
>Republican from South Carolina. But do Mr. Graham, John McCain and
other 
>appalled lawmakers understand their own role in that failure? By
deferring 
>to the administration at every step, by blocking every effort to make 
>officials accountable, they set the nation up for this disaster. You
can't 
>prevent any serious inquiry into why George Bush led us to war to
eliminate 
>W.M.D. that didn't exist and to punish Saddam for imaginary ties to Al 
>Qaeda, then express shock when Mr. Bush's administration fails to
follow 
>the rules on other matters.
>
>     Meanwhile, Abu Ghraib will remain in use, under its new commander:
>General Miller of Guantбnamo. Donald Rumsfeld has "accepted
responsibility" 
>- an action that apparently does not mean paying any price at all. And
Dick 
>Cheney says, "Don Rumsfeld is the best secretary of defense the United 
>States has ever had. . . . People should get off his case and let him
do 
>his job." In other words: Just trust us.

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