The Fallacy That It’s Business As Usual, More Or Less

by tristero

One can be utterly appalled at the dreadful details of past American behavior and yet make a convincing case that the torture discussions at the highest levels of the Bush administration are something dangerously new. The Torture Presidency is not “merely” an extremist-fueled extension of pre-existing foreign policy but a revolution that establishes a New Normal, where paranoia and racism overwhelm any semblance of commonsense, human rights abuses are considered routine and legal, and the response of choice to nearly any major contradiction of US interests is war.

It is wildly misleading to assert Bush simply built upon the crimes of previous administrations in his public approval of torture discussions (and in the torture practiced by his henchmen). It represents a failure to recognize the radical nature of Bushism and its dangers.

One major consequence of such a specious assertion is to blunt the outrage all of us should rightly feel at the extent of the Bush regime’s serial crimes. Another consequence is that it encourages cynicism at precisely the moment our disgust can turn into useful action (no matter how limited its immediate effect may be).

No one is suggesting that America’s past disgraceful behavior be ignored or condoned. But it is not the real issue.* Bush’s behavior is. And this administration’s grotesque foreign policy, one that normalizes torture to such an extent that an American president would publicly boast that it had been planned in the White House is without parallel.

To protest the Torture Presidency effectively not only requires sustained anger at its self-evident immorality but a sharp, sustained focus. It requires a recognition that these are Bush’s unique crimes and we need to do what we can to concentrate our country’s attention on them.

Discuss.

* [UPDATE: To clarify, it’s not the real issue in the sense that it is not the proximate issue.]