Krugman: Just Trust Us

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/11/opinion/11KRUG.html?hp=&pagewanted=print&position=

Didn't you know, in your gut, that something like Abu Ghraib would eventually come to light?

When the world first learned about the abuse of prisoners, President Bush said that it "does not reflect the nature of the American people." He's right, of course: a great majority of Americans are decent and good. But so are a great majority of people everywhere. If America's record is better than that of most countries — and it is — it's because of our system: our tradition of openness, and checks and balances.

Yet Mr. Bush, despite all his talk of good and evil, doesn't believe in that system. From the day his administration took office, its slogan has been "just trust us." No administration since Nixon has been so insistent that it has the right to operate without oversight or accountability, and no administration since Nixon has shown itself to be so little deserving of that trust. Out of a misplaced sense of patriotism, Congress has deferred to the administration's demands. Sooner or later, a moral catastrophe was inevitable.

Just trust us, John Ashcroft said, as he demanded that Congress pass the Patriot Act, no questions asked. After two and a half years, during which he arrested and secretly detained more than a thousand people, Mr. Ashcroft has yet to convict any actual terrorists. (Look at the actual trials of what Dahlia Lithwick of Slate calls "disaffected bozos who watch cheesy training videos," and you'll see what I mean.)

Just trust us, George Bush said, as he insisted that Iraq, which hadn't attacked us and posed no obvious threat, was the place to go in the war on terror. When we got there, we found no weapons of mass destruction and no new evidence of links to Al Qaeda.

That should be a headline by itself!!

...are running this country--into the ground!

Thanks for the link.

The system of checks and balances the U.S. has to re-establish must not only be an internal one. The U.S. tends to forget that it only is a small part of the global community. This community is struggling hard and still needs to struggle harder to agree on certain rules and sanctions.

Under the illusion of superiority the U.S. has not only insisted to make or break the rules, but has chosen to play outside of the rules. It has insisted to stay outside of international jurisdiction and bullied smaller states to excempt its soldiers and political leaders from prosecution when they break international law.

Whatever has been left of trust in the United States is very much on stake - the whole world is watching now what consequences its people and its government take from the self inflicted Iraq desaster.

The United States desparately needs to return to international accountability. The rules it has to obey to will also serve as an external "supervision" of its own system, that has proven to be not trustworthy anymore.

Of course, this is not only issue of the United States alone, but also of all other states that need to enforce the compliance to international law.

Says it all...

...what most of the whore media refuses to even consider, much less report fairly or duly examine. Paul has been a shining voice of sanity throughout the coup d'etat and the bastard monarchy. His is one of the truthful and brave media voices that will be remembered in years to come.