Day: April 17, 2009

Barack Obama is making history this week with his visit to Mexico and to the Western Hemisphere Summit of the Americas in Trinidad-Tobago.

The President has been attempting to deal with the Drug Cartel issue with Mexico’s President, promoted the open visits and financial backing of Cuban Americans for their families on the Communist island, and is now attending the Summit of the Americas and receiving a warm reception from the leaders of 44 nations, including a surprising greeting from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, a close friend of the Castro brothers and a bitter critic of former President George W. Bush. 

Obama has also in a speech welcomed the willingness of Cuban President Raul Castro to discuss at a high level all of the many issues that have divided the US from its nearest non land boundary neighbor for the past fifty years.  Imagine even in rhetoric that the Castro regime states its willingness to discuss human rights and political prisoners!  While certainly one cannot realistically expect great changes anytime soon, it is promising that there seems to be an ability to have progress of any kind, and the American people in a new poll overwhelmingly favor re-establishment of diplomatic relations, as well as trade, with Cuba.

So again, as in so many other areas, the American people continue to have faith in Obama, and seem to be supportive of his many initiatives in foreign policy.  We seem  to be on the road to a warm relationship with Latin America, similar to the times of FDR’s "Good Neighbor Policy" in the 1930s and JFK’s "Alliance for Progress" in the early 1960s.

The first two weeks of April, 2009, have seen  unbelievable advancement of gay rights in a breathtaking way.

Not only have Iowa and Vermont been added to the list of states that allow gay marriage, but also the following has occurred. 

New York is moving in the same direction on gay marriage,  as are New Hampshire, New Jersey and Maine. Additionally, top retired military brass have come out in favor of ending the "don’t ask, don’t tell" policy in the armed forces.  Also, the campaign manager of the McCain Presidential run in 2008, Steve Schmidt, who is not gay, has called on the Republican party to cease its opposition to gay marriage and other areas of gay rights, and to point out that in his mind gay rights are an unfulfilled area of human rights.  Even more shocking is that Cindy and Meaghan McCain, wife and daughter of the Presidential candidate,  are both endorsing the same belief and are attending this weekend the meeting of the Log Cabin Republicans!

There are many struggles and obstacles still to face, of course, and never will everyone accept the changes that are coming, but that is not important.  What is important is that law and justice move in  that direction, and just as there are people who oppose civil rights and interracial marriage even  today, it is obvious that there will always be a resentful minority that will continue to hold prejudiced views on gay rights.  But the promising aspect is that the younger generation of Americans, who will inherit the country in the future, are overwhelmingly in favor of change in the treatment of gay Americans.  So time and adaptation to change will bring about in the next couple of decades the full recognition of the rights of a courageous group that has long suffered from discrimination, much of the time in silence.

President Obama has stirred up strong reaction yesterday with his decision to make public all of the torture memos and directives issued during the Bush Administration.  These memos were utilized by CIA operatives in attempts to extract information from alleged terrorists,  arrested and sent to Guantanomo Bay, Cuba and to third countries, who were allegedly involved in the September 11 attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.

Leaks had occurred earlier regarding the use of torture.  Obama decided that full transparency was necessary and he authorized a clear statement that such tactics used in the last seven years were abhorrent and that they would no longer be permitted.  Indeed the Bush Administration tactics were roundly condemned at the same time that Obama stated that those CIA operatives would not be prosecuted.  The result of his decision was to have many liberals criticize the decision to refuse to prosecute CIA agents, and to have conservatives state that Obama had undermined national security and limited our ability to fight terrorism.

My thoughts on this is to back Obama on the need for exposure of the truth and to agree that the CIA agents had a legal backing of their actions, however abhorrent they were.  But at the same time, there is a definite need for the people in authority at the White House, including the President, Vice President, Attorney General, top military brass, leading Presidential aides, etc to be fully investigated and prosecuted for war crimes.  What makes the Bush crowd any different than those who worked at top levels for war criminals and dictators is beyond my imagination.  Yes, the President and his advisers have the responsibility to defend the nation, but to break international law and alienate the entire world was in itself a war crime that should be pursued as much as the cases of Pinochet of Chile, Milosevic of Serbia, and the international outlaws of Cambodia, the Sudan and other nations. 

America must regain its stature as the leader of decency, ethics and morality in international affairs, while at the same time upholding basic principles of protecting the American people from harm.  So there needs to be a Watergate type congressional investigation of these violations and take it wherever it goes.  Instead of only blaming and making scapegoats of underlings and foot soldiers, the leadership MUST be held  accountable for their illegal, immoral actions in office!