thoughts from a brokenSoldier

I seriously hope that this column by William Kristol will be the one that really opens the nation’s eyes to the true toxicity of this chickenhawk’s ridiculous ideas and dangerous suggestions, especially considering the bullshit he offers up here:

One last thing: Bush should consider pardoning–and should at least be vociferously praising–everyone who served in good faith in the war on terror, but whose deeds may now be susceptible to demagogic or politically inspired prosecution by some seeking to score political points. The lawyers can work out if such general or specific preemptive pardons are possible; it may be that the best Bush can or should do is to warn publicly against any such harassment or prosecution. But the idea is this: The CIA agents who waterboarded Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and the NSA officials who listened in on phone calls from Pakistan, should not have to worry about legal bills or public defamation. In fact, Bush might want to give some of these public servants the Medal of Freedom at the same time he bestows the honor on Generals Petraeus and Odierno. They deserve it.

 

In looking at William Kristol, one can see the reflection of all that has been wrong with our nation in the past eight years.  Besides being one of the preeminent architects of neoconservatism and the Bush administration’s preemptive war strategy, he is also one of the loudest Bush apologists in the media today (and a quite ineffective one, at that).  In his latest column, he goes so far as to suggest that Bush pardon those individuals involved in the illegal torture and warrantless wiretapping programs in order to reward them for their patriotic service and protect them from "demagogic or politically inspired prosecution by some seeking to score political points."  And on top of that, he even advocates awarding them the Medal of Freedom.  Someone should educate Mr. Kristol on the finer points of criminal procedure - it is not "politically inspired" action when a government seeks to punish those who broke the law of the land, especially when those individuals contributed to so much bloodshed and eroded so effectively the basic freedoms our nation was founded upon.

This guy never ceases to amaze me.  As someone who never spent one single second in uniform, he has never had to seriously consider what effects his ridiculous ideas have on those of us who do make the choice to serve.  Every time America tortures a detainee, it only increases the already deafening rage directed against us by those we’re fighting, and serves only to ensure that any captured Americans will receive even worse treatment.  Then again, I doubt Kristol would care about that fact in the least, since it will surely never be his ass on that line.  His praise of those agents involved in torturing detainees ignores the very real and sobering fact that we will never again be able to stand on the moral high ground provided by the Geneva Convention - which is the very ground upon which our global image as a benevolent nation has rested for so long.  Up until Kristol, Bush, and the other neo-idiots, our soldiers could rely on the fact that no matter what our enemies may do to our soldiers in captivity, they were part of a force that stood on firm moral ground and did not - under any circumstances - resort to the barbaric and unjust practice of torture.  Those days are gone.  We now have a generation of people around the world that see the United States as identical - morally speaking - to those other states that have participated in prisoner torture in order to gain beneficial information - reliable or not.

For Kristol to even suggest pardoning these people betrays the fact that he doesn’t view such torture or invasions of individual privacy as criminal or even mildly wrong.  He seems willing to trade liberty and privacy for order, security, and American hegemony across the globe - as long as it’s not his liberty or privacy that’s being taken away.  It is a theme that runs through all of his opinions, just as he was willing to trade blood for the subjugation of Iraq and the removal of Saddam Hussein - just so long as it wasn’t his blood.  His style of faux-patriotism is exactly what is wrong at the top levels of our government, where true love of country and genuine sacrifice are replaced by blind consumerism and unquestioning obedience to those in power - which should, of course, be Kristol and his ilk.

Just as our nation will not be able to heal until it purges itself of the disastrous policies of the past eight years, the media will not be able to heal itself until it expels the toxic and self-serving William Kristol from any and every possible position of influence.

In short, Kristol has more than worn out his welcome on the national political stage, and should be relegated to the sidelines from here on out.  And while I’d never advocate removing anyone’s freedom to speak their mind, it would be nice if Mr. Kristol would do us all a favor and keep his ideas and assertions to himself in the future - the country would definitely be better off if he did.  However, considering the fact that I’m speaking about someone that possesses such a grossly inflated sense of self-worth and importance, I’m certainly not going to hold my breath.