I have been struggling to name this awakening beast.
You know the beast I'm talking about.
Right wing pundits and dittoheads beating their breast about how Barack Obama is engaged in some globetrotting act of pre-emptive surrender to our ever-growing cabal of "enemies." This is what diplomacy looks like to these ninnies after spending two terms in exile.
We are struggling to emerge from an eight year eclipse of morality in which humility was treason, and torture divine. I say "struggling" because the outcome is far from decided. And I have been wondering what to call the Thing that has these people in its thrall.
It was while reading a transcript of an interview with Ari Fleischer of all people when it came into focus for me:
FLEISCHER: And why do we want anybody in al Qaeda to know what the limits of our techniques are, Paul?
He's talking about torture, of course, and by my count manages to cram at least three straw men into one brief question. But the question (which I'll answer anyway, later) is purely rhetorical. Fleischer's really not interested in an answer, as much as he is in advancing his world view:
"Oderint dum Metuant."
That was a favorite expression of the infamous first century Roman Emporer Caligula, who required his subjects to worship him as a living god. It means, loosely, "Let them hate so long as they fear."
Let them hate. So long as they fear.
We need to understand that this is the one and only purpose for which Bush and his co-conspirators authored a policy of torture. The purpose was not to procure information. The purpose was not to deter. The purpose was to terrorize not just al Qaeda but the entire world who might entertain anti-American notions with the unpredictable, and the unspeakable.
We need to understand that the architects of torture are hawking old fashioned, iron-fisted imperialism as an elixir to swollen ranks of xenophobes, and their sales pitch is insidious. It posits that we have already lost the world, so why not hold it under our thumb. It posits that the "they" of Caligula's maxim is absolutely everybody.
To wit, Dick Cheney:
"The world outside there, both our friends and our foes, will be quick to take advantage of a situation if they think they're dealing with a weak president or one who is not going to stand up and aggressively defend America's interests..."
Our friends, Vader worries, will be quick to take advantage.
Translation: America has no real friends in the world. Trust no one. Hire food tasters.
Let them hate. So long as they fear.
We need to call this by its name: it is imperial paranoia and civil xenophobia. And it seeks to strangle change in its bed.
So, why do we want the world to know what the limits of our techniques are?
The answer's simple. Because the limits of our techniques speak volumes about who we are, about our humanity, about our commitment to our founding principles, and about the world -- not the empire -- we seek to create.
Next question.