Gregory Djerejian in "Serious Consequences" at the Belgravia Dispatch blog 10/21/07 also took note of Cheney's admiring comments about his image of the Soviet Union and its allegedly ruthless dealings with Islamic terrorists:It's really an appallingly strange time in our country. We have a singularly powerful Vice-President (compared to any of his predecessors)--openly quite enamored by the tactics employed by the Soviet Union - our former arch-foe whose human rights standards we derided. Indeed, we fought a decades-long Cold War so that Western style constitutional freedoms would trump Soviet authoritarianism. But yes, from this Sovietophile posture, use of torture and black-sites and detention without habeas corpus protections makes all the sense in the world, doesn't it? Because we have a Vice-President all but openly emulating and cheer-leading the tactics of the KGB, not in the wilds of Wyoming, but to a soi disant sophisticated audience in Washington DC. Put differently, he is very proud of his world-view, indeed eager to share it with Beltway 'elites'. Who will clear this dangerous rot out of Washington and help us restore our good name? The stakes are high, that is, the preservation of the American democratic model as a leading force for moderation and rule of law on the world stage. (my emphasis)Seriously, after Cheney and Bush leave office, whether by election or impeachment, we're going to need some kind of formal process not unlike what former dictatorships have set up to process and reveal the destructive things this administration has been up to. (See Gobiernos contra dictaduras El País 11.10.2007) It should include actual prosecution of criminal acts. But it also needs to shine the sunlight into the dark corners of this darkest of Presidential administrations.
We Americans really need to take a "Never Again!" approach to the misdeeds of the Cheney-Bush government.
Tags: authoritarianism, bush administration, cheney, dick cheney, gregory djerejian
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