The Obama Mambo

The Obama Mambo

I love Glenn Greenwald.  He catches Obama in a remarkable — and shameless — act of hypocrisy.  Obama on why America can’t investigate the systematic human-rights abuses that were ordered at the highest levels of its government:

I’m a strong believer that it’s important to look forward and not backwards.

And Obama on why Indonesia must investigate the systematic human-rights abuses that were ordered at the highest levels of its government:

We have to acknowledge that those past human rights abuses existed.  We can’t go forward without looking backwards.

Being American means never having to say you’re sorry.

Topics
International Human Rights Law, National Security Law
8 Comments
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Liz
Liz
16 years ago

Ouch.

Nescio
16 years ago

“Why do they hate us? For our freedoms!”

Hmmm. Could it be the double standard, resulting in a lack of accountability? Nah, of course not, them terrarists are evil and it is the birthright of the US-people to be special and therefor no US citizen should be held to the same standard (i.e. the law) as the rest of the world. What was it about some being more equal then others?

M. Gross
M. Gross
16 years ago

Could it be the double standard, resulting in a lack of accountability?

I’m sure it’s on their list somewhere, I just don’t think it features particularly prominently. Anyone who hides behind women and children to fight their Holy War obviously doesn’t lose a whole lot of sleep about their enemies’ hypocrisy.

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SDProg
SDProg
16 years ago

That’s not quite true.  It may not matter to the leaders of these terrorist groups, but to the typical recruit who is often poor and uneducated this hypocrisy can have an effect: http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2009/11/16/terrorism

Anonsters
Anonsters
16 years ago

The sheer hypocrisy is pretty disgusting, innit?

Bleh.

Patrick S. O'Donnell
16 years ago

I’ve tried to put this in a larger context here.

Adam
Adam
16 years ago

This is not really surprising from this President. This is the same man after all who attached George W Bush for raising such claims as the state secrets defense in litigation that is still being raised in litigation. He attacked John McCain for taxing individuals purchasing health plans and then turns around to suggest it.