Looking back at Bush

President Bush initiated a war against the country of Iraq based on some kind of animosity towards Saddam Hussein, and in which eventually a half a million persons perished. His big failure, arguably, was/is that what he did has not been properly digested and understood ---- for example by the intellectual elites. And so there is no clear precedent that has been set; he simply went off on his own tangent. This does not tell us what to do, now, in Iran. He acted in isolation, ourside of the life of the country. It was very demented. One may assume that, if anyone cares, persons like B. and Cheney will just continue on saying what they always have: "I am right." But this does not help set any example that is helpful in regard to the identity of a nation. Saying simply that “I am right” is to refuse to participate in the life of the nation. It sounds like a case of a dementia, related to a case of American Individualism. “I am right" entails too much individualism. "If you do not agree with me, screw you.” That may be a perfectly good thing to say in certain contexts, but it doesn't work for government. It is not how democracy works; it is not how modernity has proceeded up until now; and, finally it is not in the real sense how capitalist methods of social organization work. Is it really necessary for me to say any more? The president of a modern democracy has an obligation, as Bush knew well, to contribute to that particular nation’s role in history. Bush failed, because he never did identify with nation but, in a case of demented American Individualism syndrome, thought history pre-empted nation. Nation, of course, implies group, and he was clawing away at the existence of the group. This is the trap that the conservative tradition leads to.

Neda

Unfortunately, this situation is not acceptable. What we are getting in now is just bullshit ---- from all sides, in reference to very important foreign policy matters. The only political leaders that we can elected are basically fools, it seems, and I say that because Obama appears not to know what is at stake. I may be somehow out of date or naive but I have long thought that the country's only distinguishing strength as well as most important feature was a belief in human rights. Some say "democracy," and Liberty and so forth. The U. S., however, does not uphold these values, even though we somehow have been able to have them internally to a certain degree, for some time now. But the first thing I think someone in Obama's position should do is apologize for the U. S. and for the C.I.A.'s having overthrown the government of Iran in 1952. I am not hearing anyone talk about this. Why? Did all those persons get killed recently? I guess I'd better "search" for some of the writers on Google. So the U. S. does not seem to support any more our one strength which is that of democracy and human rights. If we in the "democratic free world" do not support democracy and human rights we are just as good as the other countries and there is no reason why we should have any special power over tyranny or injustice. So it's all hopelss, and Obama, it appears to me, does not understand what is at stake or what is going on in Iran. Having failed to support human rights for other countries, at the current moment, the U. S. is weaker on human rights than it has ever been: Iran's political system is shooting persons in the street, and Obama is not able to say more than something like "yes, I saw the film of Neda, and you know, I found it disgusting." This did not seem to me acceptable, when I saw it. I saw it on the "TV" thing, since my new apartment came with one. I understand that Western Europeans such as the French or Germans did have a stronger response.
Back in the U.S., the position of the Right has no grasp of reality to it; they do not understand history, but just utter slogans. So that has no reality, but the position of the progressives is better informed but there is no grasp of right and wrong. So that's not acceptable. It is clear that the U. S has forgotten all about human rights at the top. It is all talk. The other thing, though, is to back up the talk with brutality or violence: a crackpot invasion of Iraq that leaves us no better informed about who we are, what our policies should look like, or where we stand on human rights. So I said, above, "bullshit from all sides." The U. S. is the most powerful, influential country of them all. I always believed that our strength was that we did did support fairness, justice, and the importance of basic decency in the conduct of persons towards other persons. What am I getting wrong? We are no longer able to tell right from wrong. We are the shame of the human race. This country has failed.
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