The Smoking Gun: Hidden in Plain Sight
Errol Morris makes the most extraordinarily good documentary films. "Documentary" because he uses primary sources and first-hand testimony to tell stories in search of truth. "The Thin Blue Line" was the first of his movies I ever saw, and it remains unlike any other film experience–except, perhaps, his other films. (Errol Morris website.)
While I was working on Standard Operating Procedure, [Morris' documentary about Abu Graib,] many people asked about "the smoking gun." "Have you found the smoking gun? Have you found the smoking gun? — presumably linking the abuses to the upper levels of the Defense Department and to the White House?" The question puzzles me. There are smoking guns everywhere but people don't see them, refuse to see them or pretend they don't exist. How many torture memos does an administration have to promulgate before the public gets the idea they are promulgating torture? Bush has recently admitted that he was present at these meetings and approved "harsh interrogation techniques." And yet this has scarcely been a news story. Well-documented attempts to subvert the Constitution, abrogation of the Geneva Conventions and simple human decency. What does it take?
We are surrounded by smoking guns on all sides. Crimes have been committed; we have ample evidence of them. But there can be no justice if there is a failure to stand up for it, if we fail to demand it. Here's the flip side of the torture memos. John Yoo can argue that the President can do anything. Let him do what he pleases, but does that mean he can't be held responsible for the things he has ordered or the things done in his name?
It is easy to dismiss all of this as the unfortunate product of war. But this is not about war, it is about us. How complacent have we become? What does it take? Each day that we allow these crimes to go unanswered erodes the very ideals that this country stands for.
[Errol Morris, "The Smoking Gun", The Huffington Post, 6 Mary 2008.]
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on Monday, 19 May 2008 at 01.43
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What Morris says is true and stated well. Incredibly, 30 percent to 40 percent of people polled still say they think Bush is doing a good job. And most of the rest are just looking ahead to replacing Bush and moving on.
But as John Dean points out, Bush has set precedents, has moved the ball down the field, so to speak, so don't be surprised if the next authoritarian conservative to get his/her hands on the levers of power takes up where Bush left off, moving things even further toward fascist dictatorship. I'm sure Dean is right, and that's scary.