Rewriting History
April 20th, 2009In the short time Barack Obama has been president, he has stridently followed the previous administration’s policy toward those detained in the war on terror — believing that they have no right to due process. As President Obama is both necessarily good and honorable, he must’ve always believed so. And evidence contrary to this must be corrected.
As a candidate for president, Obama reportedly spoke out against the treatment of those “enemy combatants” detained indefinitely at Guantanamo Bay without trial, by saying the following: “By giving suspects a chance — even one chance — to challenge the terms of their detention in court — to have a judge confirm that the Government has detained the right person for the right suspicions, we could solve this problem without harming our efforts in the war on terror one bit.”
He later supposedly praised the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Boumediene v. Bush — where the Court found that the denial of habeas corpus rights of those detained in Guantanamo Bay was unconstitutional — saying: “This is an important step toward reestablishing our credibility as a nation committed to the rule of law, and rejecting a false choice between fighting terrorism and respecting habeas corpus.”
But we must come to the conclusion that these statements are lies — falsifications of what Obama actually said. We must come to this conclusion based on the very actions of the president.
In late February, the Obama administration filed a brief in a federal district court, arguing that detainees in Afghanistan had no right to sue for their release — contending, just as the Bush administration had done, that the Boumediene ruling only affected those detained in Guantanamo Bay. This is obviously true, as everyone knows that Supreme Court decisions are applicable only to a specific American jurisdiction. For example, who among us would argue that Lawrence v. Texas applies to sodomy outside of Texas?
So, even when a district court judge ruled against the administration, they refused to capitulate — and are currently appealing the decision. And while waiting, they asked yet another district court judge not to proceed with a habeas corpus case of three men held in an Air Force base outside Kabul.
As actions always speak louder than words, we know that the policy the administration is pursuing must be how Obama truly feels, and therefore we must correct the inaccurate statements of the past — so as to avoid a false consciousness developing in the minds of the people — one that might even lead some to believe that President Obama is a hypocrite.
We must ask our friends in the media to change their previous stories about candidate Obama. Just a few simple edits is all that is needed to make clear that Obama always supported this policy. And while they’re at it, they should make clear how just this policy must be. For “Obama” and “good” are synonyms.
Actually, not just good. Doubleplusgood.
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© Copyright 2009 by Colin Cohen. All Rights Reserved.
