Heroes of yesteryear

It is always satisfying to congratulate oneself for fighting courageously in the last war, which I will do tomorrow by joining the celebrations in Washington on the remarkable occasion of the collapse of one more racial barrier. The policy details and the criticisms of Obama will just have to wait—we need this party!

But it’s easy to forget, even for us old-timers, that Martin Luther King wasn’t considered a hero at the time and wasn’t seen as a saint until after his martyrdom. He made plenty of people furious, was considered suspect and a dangerous radical, and was denounced, harassed and spied upon by J. Edgar Hoover, who was much more worried about subversives than home-grown racism (or King’s safety).

We realize that Jim Crow racism was wrong and are happy it’s over, but as bipeds we didn’t much applaud those who made it happen while they were doing so. That came later.

There are many examples of unpopular causes around today that could function as parallels, but I think the one most likely to embarrass us the soonest is the torture of defenseless prisoners.

The outgoing governing class installed torture as a matter of state policy, and as the sayonara interviews have shown, they’re not shy about saying so. A few people find that morally reprehensible—although far from enough to end the practice. (Or as my senator “Chuck” Schumer says, Voters don’t care about that.)

But one outcome of the torture policy that hasn’t got much air time is that American soldiers are now much more susceptible to becoming torture victims themselves. They will no longer have any protection in the rules of warfare (if there is such a thing), and they certainly will have no recourse in the court of public opinion. Non-Americans will shrug their shoulders and say, What did they expect?

We should re-evaluate the use of torture in our national security policy on moral grounds. But it may be the torture of an American in uniform somewhere in the world that eventually will end this heinous practice.

Twilight Highlights: New York politicians think they have to say Palestinians have no right to be alive, but Mayor Bloomberg took it a step further by flying to Israel to applaud the killing en situ. Thanks a heap, Mr Mayor! It doesn’t occur to anyone that his grandstanding for next year’s jerry-rigged re-election might make New York a target again? We have cops searching our duffel bags in the subway in a pathetic gesture towards ‘security,’ but the mayor can do his version of ‘Bring ‘em on!’, and we don’t even notice.

[P.S.] The cease-fire declared by the Israelis proves that their stated war goals were a fiction. The rockets continued to fly out of Gazan territory, and Hamas is intact. So all the destruction and death failed to put an end to that.

The Israelis were enormously successful in inflicting punishment and taking revenge. Nothing more.