An Enormous Difference

Although President Obama has backtracked somewhat on indefinite detention and the state secrets privilege - it is false to say that he is fully embracing Bush/Cheney policy. Andrew Sullivan put it very well when he wrote:

"The two fundamental issues many of us (by no means all on the "left") were concerned with - and it's hard to get more fundamental - were a) the use of torture, coercion and abuse against prisoners in violation of Geneva and the UN Convention and domestic law; and b) the claim that the power to detain indefinitely and torture - beyond all law and treaty - was vested solely in the executive branch, with no accountability or checks outside of elections.

These were, in my view, fundamental attacks on America - much more fundamental than the mass murder of 9/11. They were attacks on the core meaning of America, on American decency and values, and on the rule of law and constitutional balance. They gave the executive branch the power to coerce evidence and to avoid all accountability for such [coercion] [sic]. They allowed the president to torture an American citizen, Jose Padilla, into madness before he was allowed to stand trial (on charges that bore no relation to the original claims). This regime and its claims are now over, even as Cheney threatens to revive them in the future. For this shift, we should be glad. And Obama fulfilled that fundamental promise. He ended torture and he ended tyranny. That is no small change. Yes, the Bush administration, prodded by the courts and Congress and its own saner, calmer members, walked back some of this from 2004 onwards. But the clarity of Obama's decency and constitutionalism remains. It's what the last election was about for some of us."

I agree with these sentiments. Al Queda attacked American citizens. President Bush, and particularly Vice President Cheney, attacked America. They may not have meant to, but they clearly did. In doing what they did they revealed, with crystal clarity, that they did not understand what America is.

(And they got elected twice. Wow!)

Obama has disappointed me. Asserting "state secrets" to cover up past wrongdoing (torture and illegal spying), and threatening to withhold intelligence information from an ally in order to cover up CIA torture, are particularly troubling. So is Obama's reversal on indefinite detention - despite the fact that Obama promises to involve the judicial and legislative branches in any system of indefinite detention. Also troubling is Obama's unlawful refusal to investigate and/or prosecute Bush administration torture crimes.

These are very troubling steps taken by President Obama, particularly given that Obama campaigned against all of these practices. But they are not acts of torture or tyranny. Obama does not claim unreviewable tyrannical authority as "commander in chief" presiding over a war that will never end and a battlefield constituting the entire world.

And that is an enormous difference from the previous administration.

Joe H.