"Tis true, he was a tool from first to last..."

[selenak]

So, during the last week we had, in my part of the world, repeated headlines about the senate report on the CIA and its torture practices during the Bush years, mostly focused around the "revelation" that said torture didn't get any results and that what results were achieved by the CIA, they got first, then tortured anyway, then filed reports to make it look better for themselves by reversing the order of events. Then again, there also was apparantly pressure from above to use "enhanced interrogation techniques" against at least some field agent's reccommendations. Various comments to these articles included the suggestion that this was the CIA taking the fall for the government because of course they carried out wishes. The use of torture itself was, of course, old news. It's noticeable that after more than a decade, nobody bothers with the "a few rotten apples" disclaimer anymore which came with both the few army (Abu Ghraib) and the CIA incidents that were reported back in the day.

Meanwhile, also in the news: George W. Bush opens an exhibition of his paintings. The paintings, various reviews inform us, are nicely avarage, neither bad nor particularly good, and Dubya himself just such an affable guy.

This is why political satire has become redundant.

I mean, there never was a chance that Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney would end up in The Hague on trial, but maybe some hope that the distaste of the public for them would last a little longer than that. And, as much as it's a "go after the tool, not the wielder" unfairness, maybe some chance that some of the actual torturers would face charges, but, so the articles on the Senate report reminded us, the Obama government had refused to charge a single CIA agent in this regard. (Undoubtedly aware that doing so would establish precedence and allow some future person to charge agents for what they did during the Obama years as well, which, while not waterboarding, still would include illegal activities.)

I wonder: did a single reporter interviewing Bush about his painting activities even try to ask him how he feels about the going two wars he started, and the fact that under his government, torture became an accepted interrogation method?

(Where is a shoe-throwing Iraqui if one needs one?)

Comments

[lilacsigil]

(Where is a shoe-throwing Iraqui if one needs one?)

Probably locked up on Manus Island by the Australian government :(

[lotesse]

that juxtaposition has been giving me rage-outs for days now - plus there's the new documentary on Rumsfeld, who seems to possess a breathtaking lack of ethical awareness.

god, god, I am not a vengeful woman, but it would delight my soul to see them behind bars. it really would.

[selenak]

Ditto. I know it will never happen, but I will never stop wishing for it.

re: Rumsfeld documentary, I read about that. He also seems to think the newspeak Orwell came up with for 1984 should be a role model...

[skywaterblue]

On the bright side, we've been treated to a lot of reverse Hitler jokes here. (At least, on MY Twitter feed.)

Of course, also on my Twitter feed: art critics and artists of various stripes trying to determine his skill as a painter with some ironic like, some genuine enthusiasm (sigh) and a heap of scorn. Myself, I don't think he's particularly talented but perhaps better than your average retiree who picks up a brush in terms of subject matter and composition.

[selenak]

Going by the photos printed in papers, yours strikes me as a correct estimation of his painting skills. And if he just had retired from (incompetently) running the grocery store, I wouldn't mind! But the juxtaposition of what he's responsible for and what he's doing and how the media is responding is so grotesque. I want one person, just one, ask him "so, how about painting a naked, bruised man on a leash and a dog with a member of the armed forces as THE visual summary of your presidency, then?"

[skywaterblue]

I'd be interested in a more general "paint your Presidential experience" theme to see what came out. In a way I find his self-portrait, predictably, the most enlightening as to how he sees the world. (http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/04/politics/bush-paintings/) It's overly confident and dopey, just like the man himself. This most current set is more interesting than the last which were released by hackers because he's somewhat addressing his self and relations post-Presidency. At least, they're far more enlightening than the Hitler paintings, which are just drab landscapes he did long before he did anything else.

Of course, the darkest rumor is that he has a form of early-onset dementia and the painting in part started as therapeutic treatment. Not sure I doubt it, but either way we both know there will be no real justice for his crimes.