Open Left

one of Machiavelli's more trenchant observations

was that mercenaries are entirely untrustworthy: first, because they are motivated not by patriotism, but only by money, so they will not fight to their utmost for their client; second, because they will turn on you once they smell a profit in it.

He saw the threat that mercenary armies posed to a republic. But none of our statesmen (or stateswomen) do.

Obama is now proposing to insitutionalize key aspects of that policy as the consensus policy of the American government

This is an apt description of Obama's MO regarding large parts of national security and foreign policy, from torture to "preventive detention" to illegal spying to unilateral wars.

What Bush did furtively, haphazardly, and in direct defiance of the law, Obama proposes to do systematically, under color of law, with "safeguards" and "oversight" to maintain the barest pretense of legality. I suppose that's the meaning of the "transparency" that was promised us during the campaign.

How far back into the pre-modern darkness will this take us?  Why in the world would we want to find out?

But that's what Obama's all about. Under his presidency, we can forget the horrors of the past eight years and go with him on a magical journey of discovery where we get to find out just how shitty the world can be--all over again.

I can't say I'm looking forward to it.

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by: limpidglass @ Sun Jun 07, 2009 at 02:03:42 AM CDT