Dialog International

Teabags and Torture

I have been watching the collapse of the Republican Party in the US with some alarm since President Obama assumed office in January.  Initially, they were the "Party of No", futiley seeking to block any economic relief package while millions of Americans are losing their jobs, their health care, and their homes through foreclosure.  But in recent days the party seems to be engaged in a celebration of lawlessness. Specifically, Republican representatives are making frequent appearances in the media to justify the "enhanced interrogation techniques" - i.e. torture - orchestrated by the Bush administration.  So the party of Lincoln has devolved into the party of "teabags and torture".

Traditionally, our two party system has preserved the necessary checks and balances for a functioning democracy.  But the Republican Party  no longer offers a legitimate political opposition, and this fact is not lost on foreign observers of the American scene.  Martin Klingst has a good piece in Die Zeit, which I translated for Watching America - Das Debakel der US-Republikaner:

Das Debakel der politischen Rechten zeigt sich vor allem daran, dass sie so tun, als habe es die vergangenen acht Bush-Jahre mit ihren verheerenden Fehlern und Fehleinschätzungen nicht gegeben. Und dass wieder die ideologischen Scharfmacher die Oberhand gewinnen, die Cheneys und Limbaughs und Roves. Ausgerechnet Ex-Vizepräsident Dick Cheney wird zur republikanischen Speerspitze gegen Obama. (No, the debacle of the political right can be seen most clearly tha in the factt they act as if the last eight years of Bush never happened, with its disastrous mistakes and miscalculations, and also in the fact that the right-wing ideologues, the Cheneys and Limbaughs and Roves, have gained the upper hand).

Read my translation of the entire piece at Watching America.

Senator Sanders: Please Europeanize Us!

This is rich:  US conservatives are normally scornful of Europe and its "socialist" policies.  Suddenly, however, they have found new love for Angela Merkel and her colleagues in Europe since they oppose the economic stimulus package advanced by the Obama administration:

"(New Hampshire Senator Judd) Gregg introduced an amendment (defeated) that would have required 60 Senate votes for budget resolutions that don't meet the European Union standard of limiting debt to 30 percent of GDP.

"We're in such a bad situation in this nation right now… that [the Europeans] actually look good," Gregg said.

The immediate response of Senator Bernie Sanders - the only self-described democratic socialist in the US Senate - was brilliant:

"I'm glad to hear that my neighbor from New Hampshire is suddenly interested in Europe," he said. "And maybe we can take a hard look at the fact that virtually every European country has a national health-care program guaranteeing health care to all of their people, spending substantially less per capita than we do in this country -- maybe we can add that. And maybe we can look at the fact that while we have 18 percent of our kids living in poverty, our European friends in some cases have 3 or 4 percent of their children living in poverty. And maybe while our families have to spend $40,000 a year to send our kids to college, they do it virtually free. So I like the idea of opening up the discussion about the pros and cons of Europe, but it is broader than my friend from New Hampshire is talking about."

And here's another reason to admire Europe:  a court in Spain is launching an investigation into top officials of the Bush administration for their role in the torture of detainees at Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere - something that US lawmakers have not done even though the Bush torture policy was clearly illegal. 

A high-level Spanish court has taken the first steps toward opening a criminal investigation against six former Bush administration officials, including former attorney general Alberto R. Gonzales, on whether they violated international law by providing a legalistic framework to justify the use of torture of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, an official close to the case said.

Article in German: Früheren US-Beamten droht Prozess wegen Folter.

Obama the Social Democrat

I was impressed by President Obama's speech the other night to the joint session of Congress but it turns out that the speech was merely a warm-up to his breath-taking budget.  Barack Obama ran for office with a change agenda, and the budget reflects a real break with the past for the nation.  A Bold Plan Sweeps Away Reagan Ideas was a headline in today's New York Times. Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman observes in the same newspaper:

Elections have consequences. President Obama’s new budget represents a huge break, not just with the policies of the past eight years, but with policy trends over the past 30 years. If he can get anything like the plan he announced on Thursday through Congress, he will set America on a fundamentally new course.

But it was the neo-conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer - our most eloquent torture apologist - who makes the correct argument in the Wasthington Post today that President Obama is moving the nation to more of a European-style social democracy:

Obama sees the current economic crisis as an opportunity. He has said so openly. And now we know what opportunity he wants to seize. Just as the Depression created the political and psychological conditions for Franklin Roosevelt's transformation of America from laissez-faireism to the beginnings of the welfare state, the current crisis gives Obama the political space to move the still (relatively) modest American welfare state toward European-style social democracy.

For those who paid attention during the presidential campaign, Obama's social democratic orientation should not come as a surprise. After the speech in Berlin last July, Uwe-Karsten Heye discussed this in a conversation with Stern:

US Conservatives Demonize Europe (Still!)

Once again the Republican party leaders are issuing dire warnings that the United States could become like Europe. Does that mean that the half million Americans losing their jobs each month can count on having health care, public transportation, quality education and a robust safety net? This is supposed to frighten us?

German Press Review of Obama's Inaugural Address

Like most American commentators, German reviewers gave President Obama high marks for his inaugural address, even if it disappointed by not matching the great speeches of John F. Kennedy and Franklin Roosevelt.  The speech was rich in substance, however, and i have noticed how people keep coming back to it to point out specific points that represented a break with the Bush era.

Writing in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Stefan Kornelius picked up on the theme of responsibility, which Obama evoked throughout his address.

Responsibility ist Obamas Kurzfassung für den berühmten Kennedy-Satz, ebenfalls bei einer Amtseinführung vorgetragen: Frage nicht, was dein Land für dich tun kann, frage, was du für dein Land tun kannst. Mit diesem Aufruf zur Verantwortlichkeit gibt Obama die Last des Amtes zurück an die Wähler, er verteilt die Aufgaben auf viele Schultern, und er gibt der amerikanischen Politik eine neue Richtung vor. (Responsibility is Obama's short-hand for the famous phrase of Kennedy, which has also delivered in an inaugural address: ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.  With this call for responsibility, Obama shifts the weight of his office back to the voters, he distributes the tasks at hand to many shoulders, and he puts American policy on a new course.)

Nina Baumann in Focus was struck by the somber tone of the speech:

Doch bei aller Euphorie, die die Millionen in Washington verbreiteten: Obamas Antrittsrede war mehr vom Ernst der Lage geprägt als von Jubel und Triumph. Hatte er schon in seiner Rede in der Wahlnacht die Nation auf die Herausforderungen eingestimmt, vor der das Land steht, so standen diese bei der „Inaugural Address“ noch stärker im Vordergrund.( Despite the euphoric mood of the millions in Washington, Obama's inaugural address was characterized more by the seriousness of the situation than by triumph and celebration.  Already in his speech on election night he warned the nation of the challenges ahead, and this was even more pronounced in his inaugural address.)

Christina Neuhaus in Die Welt points out the phrases that are off-putting to European ears, which, however are virtually mandatory for any incoming US president:

Er sagt dabei etwas, das in Europa völlig vermessen klingt und das sich eine Angela Merkel oder ein Nicolas Sarkozy nie auszusprechen trauen würde: „Wir sind immer noch die wohlhabendste, mächtigste Nation der Erde.“ Später in der Rede heißt es über die Ideale der Gründungsväter: „Diese Ideale erhellen noch immer die Welt.“ Amerika sei „wieder einmal bereit zu führen“. Das mag hierzulande arrogant klingen. Doch es ist Balsam auf Amerikas krisengeschüttelte Seele. (Then he says something that sounds quite presumptuous in Europe and that neither Angela Merkel nor Nicolas Sarkozy would ever dare to say: "We are still the wealthiest and most powerful nation on earth."  And later, on the ideals of the founding fathers: "These ideals still light the world" America is "once again prepared to lead." These phrase may sound arrogant here, but they are balm for the crisis-ridden American soul.)

Her colleague at Die Welt, Bettina Röhl, has a unique take on Barack Obama and his inaugural address.  In her hit piece US Praesident Obama: Schwache Antrittsrede! ("Weak Inaugural Address!") Frau Röhl heaps scorn on Obama, his speech, and her colleagues in the German media:

Man kann nun nicht einfach jeden Ton, den Obama lässt, in einen Geniestreich umfunktionieren. Man erinnert sich, dass eine Sarah Palin über Wochen von den Medien ins Kreuzfeuer genommen und politisch examiniert wurde und regelmäßig durchfiel: aber der Künstler der Plattitüden, der großen, schönen und gewaltigen Plattitüden, Barack Obama, segelt als Intellektueller glatt durch, ohne getestet zu werden. Die heutige Rede brachte nichts Neues und Obama spulte sie auch, relativ zu diesem einmaligen Anlass, vergleichsweise uninspiriert einfach so ab. (You can't twist every tone that Obama emits as a work of genius. Just recall how Sarah Palin was attacked in the media week after week and always failed each policial test, but the artist of platitudes, the great, beautiful, powerful platitudes, Barack Obama, easily sailed through as an intellectual, without ever once being tested. Today's speech didn't offer anything new, and Obama delivered it without any inspiration in spite of the enormity of the event.)

Elsewhere, Frau Röhl complains that, as a man commtted to peace, Obama is a threat to the world order. It is only by threatening military force that America is effective as a world leader.  In fact, Israel never would have attacked Gaza if John McCain, rather than Obama, had been elected.

Finally, back in the reality-based world, Bernd Pickard in the Tageszeitung, recognizes that the speech signaled a welcome break from the policies of the past eight years:

In seiner Rede lässt Obama Themen früherer Reden anklingen - den amerikanischen Traum, das Versprechen von gleichen Aufstiegsmöglichkeiten, das er selbst verkörpert. Aber für Obamas Verhältnisse, und für die Standards präsidentieller Antrittsreden, hält sich der neue Präsident auf den Stufen des Capitols mit Pathos zurück. Obama weiß, dass er selbst Geschichte genug ist. Da braucht es vielleicht nicht die eine Zeile, die Generationen in Erinnerung bleibt. Allerdings gibt Obama ein ganz großes Versprechen: Das einer Zeitenwende und der Wiederaneignung der USA durch jene, die die noblen Seiten der US-amerikanischen Idee verkörpern - im Unterschied zu denen, die noch bis Dienstag in Washington regierten. Selten war eine Antrittsrede eine so unversöhnliche Abrechnung mit der Vorgängerregierung. Selten auch wurde der Moment so herbeigesehnt, da sich der Vorgänger in den Hubschrauber verabschiedet. (Obama echoes themes of earlier speeches: the American dream, the promise of equal opportunity for advancement, which he himself embodies. But by Obama's own standards, and those of past inaugural addresses, the new president on the steps of the Capitol toned down the pathos.  Obama knows, that he made history just by standing where he did.  He didn't need that one line that would be remembered by future generations.  On the other hand Obama made one momentous promise: the promise of real change and the re-appropriation of the US by those who represent the noble aspects of the American idea - in stark contrast to those who governed in Washington until Tuesday.  Seldom has an inaugural address been such a consequential reckoning with the preceeding administration, seldom has a moment been more welcome than when the predecessor left by helicopter.)

The Legacy of George W. Bush

In just a few days George W. Bush will leave the White House and return to Texas as a private citizen.  It is a good time to reflect on his legacy as president of the United States. The Rhein Zeitung does just that with a concise op/ed piece: George W. Bush - als Präsident gescheitert (GWBush: A Failure as President):

Verstörende, empörende Bilder bleiben von der Bush-Zeit: Die Aufnahmen der erniedrigten, gepeinigten Iraker in Abu Ghreib. Die Gefangenen in Guantánamo in grell-oranger Kluft. Massen verzweifelter, zorniger Menschen, meistens Schwarze, die sich nach dem Hurrikan Katrina im "Superdome" von New Orleans drängen. Die Amerikaner verübeln ihrem Präsidenten vor allem, dass er das Ansehen des Landes weltweit schwer beschädigt hat. Präventiv-Kriege, Menschenrechtsverletzungen und Folter, Arroganz, Ignoranz und Selbstüberschätzung sind die Begriffe, mit denen sich für viele das Amerika der Bush-Zeit verbindet. (The Bush era leaves behind disturbing and enraging images: the photos of humuliated and tormented Iraqis in Abu Ghraib. The prisoners at Guantanamo in bright orange jump suits. Masses of desperate, angry people, mostly black, pouring into the New Orleans Superdome following Hurricane Katrina.  Above all, Americans blame their president for damaging the image of the country around the world.  Preventive wars, violations of human rights, torture, arrogance and hubris are words that come to mind for many in connection with the Bush era).

What are the worst aspects of the Bush legacy?  Let's survey the damage: an unnecessary war launched under false pretenses, Palestine again in flames, a planet damaged due to inaction on climate change, millions of unemployed Americans, the worst recession since the Great Depression, a great city ruined, America's strategic alliances in shambles.  Any one of these would relegate George W. Bush to the bottom ranks of US presidents. 

But what stands out in the Bush presidency, what historians will cite when they place George W. Bush as the WORST president in the history of the United States, is his administration's policy of torturing detainees.  This is The Bush Administration's Most Despicable Act.  If the American people were genuinely interested in truth and justice, Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld would be charged with war crimes.  That will not happen, but there are other - symbolic -  actions that incoming president Barack Obama can take to show the world that America will no longer engage in the practice of torture:

"If Barack Obama really wanted to be cagey, he could pardon Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld for the possible commission of war crimes. Then they'd have to live with official acknowledgment of their ignominy in perpetuity. More likely, Obama will simply make sure — through his excellent team of legal appointees — that no such behavior happens again. Still, there should be some official acknowledgment by the U.S. government that the Bush Administration's policies were reprehensible, and quite possibly illegal, and that the U.S. is no longer in the torture business. If Obama doesn't want to make that statement, perhaps we could do it in the form of a Bush Memorial in Washington: a statue of the hooded Abu Ghraib prisoner in cruciform stress position — the real Bush legacy."

Leon de Winter's Racist Attack on Barack Obama in Die Welt

The Dutch writer Leon de Winter has made a nice career in Germany as a journalist specializing Islam.  His hate-filled diatribes against Muslims have received much attention and even occasional awards. But now, two months after the elections in the US, de Winter turns his attention to Barack Obama. His piece Barack Obama: ein knallharter Opportunist (Barack Obama: A Brutal Opportunist) appeared in the December 31 edition of the conservative daily Die Welt.

De Winter basically takes the talking points from the McCain-Palin campaign and reprints them in Die Welt as the gospel truth.  All of the right-wing attacks by the likes of Rush Limbaugh can be found here: Barack is a corrupt Chicago politician, he is a left-wing radical because he "palled around with the terrorist" Bill Ayers, he has no substance, no policies, the world will soon see that he is a charlatan, etc.   But de WInter even repeats the sentiments from the racist song played over and over by Limbaugh: "Barack the Magic Negro", namely that Obama is not really black:

Barack ist dunkelhäutig, aber nicht schwarz (ein Mann mit richtig schwarzer Haut wäre niemals so weit gekommen), und sein Auftreten hat das Lässige und zugleich Überlegene jenes intelligenten und einnehmenden Schwarzen (gespielt von Sidney Poitier) aus dem Hollywood-Klassiker „Rat mal, wer zum Essen kommt“, in dem eine junge Weiße ihren gutsituierten Eltern ihren Verlobten vorstellt – der eben ein Schwarzer ist. (Barack is dark-skinned bu not black (a man with real black skin would never have gotten so far) and he has the relaxed but superior style of the intelligent and endearing black man (played by Sidney Poitier) from the Hollywood classic Guess Who's Coming to Dinner in which a young white woman introduces her affluent parents to her fiance who happens to be a black man.)

So according to de Winter Obama has duped the American public with his nice-guy persona, just as moderate Muslims have duped Germans into thinking they aren't really terrorists.  And the stupid American voters turned out in record numbers to elect this fraud.  However, de Winter and his fellow Obama-haters will soon have the last laugh because Obama promises to be a total failure:

Zum zweiten Mal in seinem Leben muss Obama Führung übernehmen. Beim ersten Mal hatte er in Chicago mit William Ayers zusammen (der große Stücke vom Kuchen bekam) einen 150 Millionen Dollar starken Fonds zu verwalten, mit dem das Bildungssystem in Chicago verbessert werden sollte. Es wurde ein glatter Misserfolg. Jetzt macht sich Obama auf, die Welt zu regieren. (For the second time in his life Obama has to take a leadership role. In his first attempt Obama, along with William Ayers (who got big pieces of the cake) managed a $150 million fund to reform the Chicago school system.  It was a complete failure. Now Obama is getting ready to govern the world.)

I haven't seen too much of a reaction to de Winter's awful op/ed piece, but the hate-blog Politically Incorrect is, of course, jubilant. Recently the German Verfassungsschutz (Office for Protection of the Constitution) placed Politically Incorrect under surveillance for the extreme intolerance and racism of its content and commenters.  Will the Verfassungsschutz do the same with Leon de Winter?

Obama and the European Left

My piece on Lessons for Europe's Social Democrats from the Obama Campaign is up at the Atlantic Review blog.

Austrian Exceptionalism - Again!

What the hell is happening in Austria?  First the entire nation collapses in paroxysms of uncontrollable grief when its neo-fascist national joke Joerg Haider - drunk and speeding - fatally crashes after a night of debauchery.  Now, while the rest of the world celebrates the historic election of Barack Obama, a prominent "America Expert" goes on Austrian national television and erupts in a racist rant:

In Austria, Obama's win prompted a harsh, on-air reaction from a well-known journalist, Klaus Emmerich. "I think the Americans are still racists and they must be very badly off to so spectacularly -- and that has to be said, no doubt -- send a black man with a black, very good-looking and clever woman to the White House," he said Wednesday during a show on public television network ORF.

After saying that he "wouldn't want the Western world to be directed by a black man," he added: "If you say that is a racist comment, you're right. Without a doubt."

Emmerich, 80, was once based in Washington and has also reported for German television and newspapers over a long career. Given a chance to retract his remarks, he declined. In a later interview with the Austrian newspaper Der Standard, he said that "blacks are not as politically civilized." He also called Obama dangerous and implicitly compared him to Hitler, citing his "rhetorical brilliance" and his ability to "appeal charismatically to people."

How could someone like this be celebrated for years as Austria's "Mr. America" - the repository of all inside knowledge pertaining to the United Sates? 

The Washington Post left out one of the more telling racist utterances of Herr Emmerich - one that many Austrians probably agree with.  Emmerich said on national television that "Obama's election would be comparable to a Turk becoming chancellor of Austria" (Das wäre ungefähr so, wie wenn der nächste Bundeskanzler ein Türke wäre in Österreich.)  There you have it: a black man is almost as bad as a Muslim.

Will President Obama Survive His First Term?

Hate is a powerful emotion and we cannot deceive ourselves that, even though Barack Obama won the election in a landslide, there are not "patriots" who would undo the result through a violent act.  The America correspondent for Telepolis - Florian Rötzer - reminds us that political assassinations are as American as apple pie:

Die USA haben zwar eine Demokratie, aber auch eine Kultur des Attentats entwickelt, was die weite Verbreitung von Waffen unterstützt. Vier Präsidenten wurden getötet, auf acht Präsidenten gab es Anschlagsversuche. (The US may have a democracy, but it also has developed a culture of assassination which is also fed by the preponderance of firearms. Four presidents were killed, while attempts were made on eight presidents.) 

The threats against Barack Obama have accelarated thanks to the rhetoric of the McCain-Palin campaign.  Sarah Palin repeatedly told crowds of any white voters that Obama "palled around with terrorists" and held "un-American" views.  The UK daily Telegraph reports that the US Secret Service blames Palin for a spike in threats against Barack Obama: 

"The Secret Service warned the Obama family in mid October that they had seen a dramatic increase in the number of threats against the Democratic candidate, coinciding with Mrs Palin's attacks.

Michelle Obama, the future First Lady, was so upset that she turned to her friend and campaign adviser Valerie Jarrett and said: "Why would they try to make people hate us?""

Nor has the election put these threats to rest.  There is still the sense among right-wing extremists in the US and abroad that the election was somehow illigitimate, that Obama is, in fact, a Muslim terrorist.  The German hate-blog - Politically Incorrect - hints that Obama won the election thanks to nefarious influences of Islamic states, that he is, in fact,  the 12th Iman.  The blog still has an American flag in its banner and describes itself as "pro-Amerikanisch", even though the American voters have demonstrated over and over that they reject the hate propagated by Politically Incorrect and its commenters. 

As a vocal Obama supporter with a presence on the Web, I get my share of threats and hate mail.  But nothing prepared me for a chilling e-mail that was meant to incite violence against the president elect (NYTreeFarmer - whoever you are, I forwarded your message to the FBI).  Here it was alleged that President Obama will confiscate the guns and other property of white people as part of his plan to "redistribute the wealth".  Furthermore, he will even resort to murder and other barbaric practices ("Thus, the sale of body parts harvested from greedy white people is well within the scope of foreseeable means for supporting Obama's proposed "National Security Force"), The e-mail concudes with a banner that reads: Re-elect Biden 2012.  It took me a second to grasp the meaning of that; then chills went down my spine.