By Libby
Dan at Pruning Shears looks at those few brave souls who publicly stood up against the excesses of the Bush administration before his approval ratings fell into the toilet.
That Mori, Zanetti and the jurors were willing to do otherwise speaks eloquently of their high character, as does Radack�s insistence on serving the interests of justice even at substantial personal cost. A great many people have just gone along, or perhaps resigned in protest and quietly went away. The ones who did not, and chose instead to go against the prevailing culture and speak up, have rendered a great service to our country. Their names deserve to be remembered more than those of the ones they strove against.
Sadly, unlike the enablers that didn't jump ship until it was sinking, none of them got cushy jobs on talking head teevee and their names did not become familiar.
Lots of people have pointed to the few within the US permanent civil service and some few within the Bush administration singled out in Jane Mayer's book as standing for the law and principles of a civilised society as some saving grace factor. Radack, mentioned in your link, I think, is the only individual who the book mentions was hounded from her position and subsequently attacked and attacked.
ReplyDeleteEven though I like to be panglossian, most of what I read in Mayer's book about the honourable ones seemed like just good intentions and we know what road is paved with them. In the beginning pages of Nicholson Baker's Human Smoke he also mentions various sane individuals within the 3rd Reich with good intentions now just interesting footnotes for example Ludwig Beck's first conflicts with Hitler and not the July 20th plot.
Hi Libby - thanks for the link!
ReplyDeleteFolks have been dropping some other good names in the comments at Pruning Shears, including Antonio Taguba and Bunnatine Greenhouse. I didn't mean for the people I mentioned to be an exhaustive list, obviously, and it's good to see folks dragging some other names back from the edge of the memory hole!
Geoff, the point is that whoever, these lots of people are, and I'm one of them who pointed out them out when they got what little press they did, it didn't get picked up by the elite media, so they are hardly household names. They're only known to political junkies.
ReplyDeleteDan, it was great post and I didn't think you implied it was an exhaustive list but I'm glad to see it sparked some memories for people.
Hi Libby I completely agree that those who stood, or tried to stand up to Addington et al, should be more widely known. I also think that corporate media will not be involved in telling any stories about them or making them widely known. If there were to be any stories they would be heavily peppered with "he said, she said" objectivity. Even Mayer's from day one has provided an out for the "darksiders' by couching her stories with they intended well. I do understand that she likely needs to do this as protection from unscrupulous types who could claim she was being unfair in reporting facts. Anyway the book seems to me to be full of potential docudramas if not any outright novels, short-stories etc. etc... I'd love to see the characters of Yoo and Mora compared for example in a play- both of their families fled repressive gov'ts, South Korea and Cuba yet one ends up a democrat (small c) and the other an anti-democratic royalist in effect.
ReplyDeleteWhen under a new administration none of the darksiders are held accountable I've fleetingly wondered if some of the relatives of smaller fish who were executed or imprisoned for WWII war crimes could seek apologies and potential compensation because of the new attitude towards their offensives. The irony of some of what Mayer reported on is to me a bit mind boggling. I wonder if Bush, or McCain for that matter, has mentioned in front of VFW types, particularly Pacific vets, that the US had/has adopted the Japanese justification for the Bataan Death March.