Mandatory Reading

As painful as it is to read these books, as citizens who desire a more humane and egalitarian world, we must know what has been done in our names. At least three books are mandatory: Philippe Sands "Torture Team"; Jane Mayer "The Dark Side"; and Naomi Klein "The Shock Doctrine."

Each points a finger at top members of the Bush Administration for taking the reigns of our government and turning our resources to defiling America, eroding a commitment to civil and human rights, devastating the efficacy of government, and all the while making exorbitant profits. The hundreds of thousands of lives destroyed by the Bush Administration during the course of its "war on terror" is horrifying in and of itself. However, the profits made by American corporations as the functions of government here and abroad were privatized add another dimension to the last eight years, especially when one sees just how much Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, and George Bush, Sr. made through the war in Iraq and the more pervasive "war on terror."

As informed citizens of this country and of the world, we must insist that the Obama Administration take the steps necessary to investigate, prosecute, and undo the damage done by the ideologues of the last presidency. We have no choice. This information is out there, and to choose not act is an act of such hubris and arrogance that I doubt the rest of the world will ever respect the United States again. No matter how popular Obama might seem today.

What Spain is Doing for the United States

Since President Obama doesn't seem to quite have the stomach yet, a Spanish Court last week began a criminal investigation into charging six former Bush administration officials with war crimes. The six under the prosecutorial microscope are: Douglas Feith, the former Under-Secretary of Defense for Policy; former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales; John Yoo, a former Justice Department lawyer, infamous for the torture memos that tortured legal analysis, precedent, and international law; and David Addington, the chief of staff and the principal legal adviser to Vice-President Dick Cheney.

Why Vice President Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and President Bush aren't on the list bewilders me.

According to Jane Meyer, the National Book Award author of "The Dark Side," the basis for the investigation is the work of Philippe Sands, the British professor whose book "The Torture Team" blazed the way through the lame excuse that those pictures we saw from Abu Ghraib were the result of a "few bad apples." According to Sands' research, what horrified us in those photographs of degradation was the result of high level authorizations from either the White House or very close by. There is an incredible interview conducted by Bill Moyers of Sands that shouldn't be missed.

Read Jane Mayer's short piece in the April 13, 2009 The New Yorker.

Here is why, no matter what, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Bush should be investigated. At least Cheney and Rumsfeld made money while in office. Cheney held onto his Halliburton stock and influence, and guess what: Halliburton got a helluva lot of no-bid contracts in the aftermath of the Iraqi invasion. Rumsfeld made himself richer, too, because he held onto his Gilead stock, which just so happened to own the patent for Tamiflu, the alleged antidote to Avian Flu. Remember that?

As I am finishing Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine, the crimes of the Bush administration become more heinous and urgent. It's one thing to be incompetent. It's another thing to make mistakes. But it is indefensible to run government for private enrichment, and that's what Cheney and Rumsfeld did. There is no evidence in Klein's book that Bush did directly benefit, but the doors he opened to privitizing everything will welcome him in his post-White House days.