Syria and Afghanistan: The Endless Shadow of Bush and Cheney (Part 1):
It was stated as plain fact, a mere detail, in a Fox "news" online article about al-Qaeda supposedly taking advantage of the uprising in Syria to expand its influence in the region. Mentioning the release of another supposed terrorist, the article says he "was captured in Pakistan 2005 and was in CIA custody until he was sent back to Syria as part of the controversial rendition program." There you are. It's just something we're supposed to accept and move on about: the United States sent people to Syria because we knew they'd be tortured there.

And that's not even getting into the story of Maher Arar, which is an awful and disgusting tale.

Now, with constant streams of torture videos coming out of Syria, with the savage crackdown on the uprising there, hearing President Obama condemning the "outrageous bloodshed" and demanding Bashar al-Assad to step down just makes the Rude Pundit's feel like he's gotten a gut punch. Because all he can think is, "Now, where did the Syrians get the idea that they could just go on with torturing and killing innocent people with only ongoing financial sanctions imposed?" And, of course, that'd be us when we gave them prisoners and said, "Oh, hey, you know that torture thing you're good at? I mean, I know we hate each other and shit, but can you do a bro a solid and break out the electric nut prod for these dudes?"

Sure, yeah, fine, that was the Bush administration, all the goons and ghouls that led us into the dark ride into the dark side for so long. And we want to say that we've emerged, but we haven't. The policy continues, with the added fun of no-trial execution. Time and again, one thing is going to come back to haunt this country and that's the failure of our government to hold anyone accountable for crimes, like knowingly giving people over to psychopaths because we wanted their hands to be bloody while ours were just wet with waterboarding.

So Obama and Pelosi and Reid gave 'em all a pass, all the Bush criminals. And, now, once again, one of our monstrous minions has gone rogue and we are in the position of having no fucking high ground. Jesus Christ, at least Canadians know how to treat war criminals: you drive them out, you make them cower and shit themselves in corners, you spit out their presence like a diseased cock you were forced to put in your mouth at gunpoint. Dick Cheney was supposed to speak in Toronto, but, because there might have been a fucking riot (and maybe an attempt to arrest him), he canceled. Would that America would treat its depraved ex-leaders as pariahs.

Here, unless you are some poor fucker who looks vaguely Middle Easterny and suspicious, you're allowed to live your life, with the imprimatur of innocence consecrating your several homes and big money speaking engagements.

Until we are willing to face our crimes, we will be a lost nation. Until we are willing to end our crimes, we deserve to be lost. The Bush administration is an ongoing eclipse of a mythical moral authority, so much so that when President Obama speaks out against torture and murder, all we can think is that it must be degrees of bloodshed, not the acts themselves, that get condemned.