As South Africa currently struggles to achieve the ideals they committed themselves to in their post-apartheid constitution, ironic, as it may seem, we could benefit from the path they have courageously blazed.
How can one of the youngest democracies (post apartheid) teach the oldest, you ask? Very simply, we need our own version of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
We need to follow the South African government's lead under former President Nelson Mandela by assembling a courtlike body after the Bush administration leaves office, calling on key administration officials and key staff within the CIA, State Department, Pentagon, etc., to give testimony on the run-up to the Iraq war. And, like South Africa, grant immunity to those who request it prior to their testimony.
I would love to hear presidential candidates from both parties address the need to formally return to the days that led to the Iraq war. Those were the days that laid the foundation for the current divisive climate that has made the praxis of the Constitution optional.
My fear is that without an honest assessment of how we got to this current state, we will be unable to hold the next president, regardless of party, to a standard that is much above the fear-induced, tacit lack of accountability we bequeathed the current administration.
We don't need witch hunts, political grandstanding or revenge; we need the truth.
The truth about the past is the only way to rise above the current political cacophony that is leading us further down the abyss of despair.
We have lifted al-Qaida to the level of the former Soviet Union in terms of a threat and few can say how we arrived at a point that has us simultaneously engaging in two wars and saber rattling toward a third.
We have become a nation that detains innocent people such as Maher Arar, the Syria-born Canadian citizen who during a stopover in New York en route from Tunisia to Canada was subsequently sent to Syria for torture under the controversial American practice of "extraordinary rendition."
It almost went unnoticed when former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, in justifying the law signed by the president last October that stripped federal courts of their authority to hear habeas corpus suits by noncitizens labeled "enemy combatants," testified last before Congress: "The Constitution doesn't say every individual in the United States or every citizen is hereby granted or assured the right of habeas."
How did we become a country that goes into war touting the superiority of our ideals while engaging in similar practices that we condemn? Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib certainly blurred the lines of our perceived good and evil.
Moreover, how did we become a country that leads with a partisan foreign policy? Such practices have proven more effective in totalitarian regimes than democratic ones.
I live under no Pollyannaish illusions, to attempt an authentic Truth and Reconciliation Commission would be a Herculean effort. The South African government struggled to achieve it and continues to do so some 12 years later.
It would require a brand of contrition seldom witnessed in American history, accompanied by equally unique example of leadership.
Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr opined in "Moral Man and Immoral Society" that individuals are more moral than communities. Such was the case with South Africa and there is nothing to suggest America would not be any less resistant to such an enterprise.
It would be bold, daring and unprecedented. The only problem is that our current crop of presidential candidates do not show much interest in debating anything short of why they voted, didn't vote or regretted their vote for the Iraq war.
Is there such a leader among us, who possesses the courage to seek the uncomfortable truth so that the nation can move forward? Or are we going to naively believe the damage done these past six years will cease the moment we change administrations?
I would very much like to see our next president, by the second State of the Union address, stand before a joint session of Congress in the spirit of former President Ford and state: "Our long Constitutional nightmare is over!"
Byron Williams is an Oakland pastor and syndicated columnist. E-mail him at byron@byronspeak.com or leave a message at 510-208-6417.
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I like your idea- ROCKS on the White House lawn, yet, this criminal crowd would have 'snipers' set up to drop you in a 'stone's throw' of the White House....
How about this?:
Reams of confetti strips that contain the names of our sons/daughters/friends/cousins/parents who have been lead to slaughter and loss limbs in this BUSH WAR- to make it as personal as the pain we feel this CHIMP has led our children into Iraq!
Not simply al-Qaida but anyone who doens't fit in. A Muslim in America? -- People ask "why are they here?" People say, "I don't trust them."
Your average citizen who sets off the alarm at the airport is suddenly a "suspect."
Sa d Sad Sad
But no set of criminals with as much blod on their hands as BushCo should be given any sort of immunity. They've given it to themselves already, and that will likely be the end of it.
And a fastfood media that serves talking point propaganda or irrelevant fodder over blue knuckle investigative journalism.....
It's no wonder there are still some that believe Hussein was connected to 9/11 and have forgotten the first Gulf War and where the weapons came from.
Heck, look how long it takes for some to connect the Bush, Texas Oil Man to Bush, Oil President...
Or the Nixon trash Cheney to Executive overeach Cheney...
The candidates that speak the most truth are at the bottom of the stack.
Which speaks volumes for how we like our truth in this country:
Don't ask.
Don't tell.
Covered in flag.
With a side of freedom fries.
Instead of the Truth, we get the Gospel According To The Highest Bidder.
But I am not so sure that lessons will be learned. After all, when the President tells you to help win the war by going shopping and leave the details to him, it should have raised some suspicions.
What! A leader? She?
I doubt that any of them could seriously consider truth as something he wants to deal with.
Thus there can be no reconcilliation.
I would suggest hanging the bastards. Since they have destroyed the law, we have no law. So let's have some Old West justice of the type Bush spoke of when he started the first of his wars, on the basis of the lie that it was to capture bin Laden.
That would be a justice better than Bush&co. offer their victims.
It may take 4-5 generations to work out all the evil-doings of Bush/Cheney/Rice, but it's not too early to start. Tomorrow would be nice thank you. One day at a time just like quitting any other bad habits. The first is to recognize the scope of the problem, which you have done.
Unfortunately, the Democrats probably won't even stand up to a worthless president to stop his request for an additional $850 billion in debt to fund current government operations, how can we expect them to do something more important.
Will it happen? Probably not. The nation has sunk too low into the miasma of authoritarianism and a police-state mindset to allow it to happen.
Democracy in America has always been more notional than a reality, our so-called "representative" form of government a toothless charade designed to gull the masses.
I'm afraid we're in for a long hard journey through the bowels of dictatorship. What emerges will decide if a United States under any form of government will survive.
What could truth do to the dream?