Losing the Moral High Ground

[IndianaGreen]

Losing the Moral High Ground

Frida Berrigan | October 7, 2009

On the eighth anniversary of the launch of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, the spotlight is on the Obama administration's evolving war strategy in a nation long known as the "graveyard of empires."

The current discourse on what is now dubbed "Obama's War" focuses on the number and composition of troops, as well as the overarching strategy (counter-insurgency, rapid withdrawal, a mix of military and reconstruction operations).

But we should not lose sight of another consequence of the October 7, 2001 invasion: the detention of thousands of people suspected of being hostile to the United States. They remain held at prisons at Guantánamo, Bagram Air Field, and elsewhere. They have now become Obama's enemy combatants.

Closing Gitmo

"I think we lost the moral high ground," concludes Marine Brigadier General Michael Lehnert (Ret.), once tasked with setting up the detention camps at the Guantánamo Bay U.S. Naval Base, where more than 200 prisoners remain. "I think we should close it down. I think the information we're getting is not worth the international beating we're taking."

President Barack Obama came into office promising to do just that. Less than 24 hours after his inauguration in January 2009, he signed an executive order requiring the "closure of the Guantanamo detention center no later than one year from the date of the Order."

At the time, the act — along with a ban on "enhanced interrogations" — seemed like Obama's decisive break with the moribund policies of the Bush White House. But the deadline for Guantanamo's closure, less than four months away, almost certainly will be missed. And on so many vital issues, the Obama administration has not broken with the past but instead has upheld Bush's legacy of legal loopholing, moral doublespeak, and crude vengeance.

http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/6479

[MarjorieG]

1. Fine, then convince the fear-mongering Congress's states to accept some prisoners.

[Demeter]

2. What Moral High Ground?

It was lost a long time ago. I doubt we can ever regain it, at this point. It's far too "quaint" for RealPolitick, besides.

[edwardian]

3. It is a peculiarly

American trait to believe that your nation ever stood on the moral high ground. I won't supply a list of transgressions against morality, but you could try looking into your nations history to get a good look at the fantasy basis of such a belief in moral superiority. History proves clearly that moral concerns were never high on the agenda of nations; expedience and pragmatism are.
You are engaging in cultural mythologizing when you raise your nation above others on the basis of such false beliefs. I wonder if you consider "America, #1!" as equivalent to "Deutschland Uber Alles!"?

[bemildred]

4. More like the public relations high ground.

Morality never had a thing to do with it except as a talking point.

[truedelphi]

5. k and r for reading later