“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”

We’ve been fed the absurdities for almost eight years now –

• Claims of the presence of Weapons of Mass Destruction to justify the invasion of a sovereign nation that had never committed an act of aggression against the United States
• Abrogation of individual liberties
• Illegally accessing confidential records of U.S. citizens
• Warrantless wiretaps
• Firing of Federal Prosecutors for political purposes
• Falsifying accounts of U.S. Troop deaths for political purposes
• Providing immunity from prosecution to government contractors for criminal acts performed while in service to the government
• Illegally detaining and holding foreign nationals indefinitely without bringing charges
• Kidnapping foreign nationals and transporting them to “Black Sites” in nations where torture is routinely used for information gathering
• Questioning the patriotism of any citizen who disagrees with the actions of the Executive Branch

Finally, the Supreme Court last week slapped down the Bush-Cheney regime and said “this isn’t right” when it ruled the part of the Military Commissions Act that attempted to block the federal courts from hearing the claims of detainees at Guantánamo was unconstitutional, thus restoring the right of habeas corpus that had been suspended by the Bush administration. Writing for the majority opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy quoted Alexander Hamilton in the Federalist Papers stating, “€¦arbitrary imprisonments have been, in all ages, the favorite and most formidable instruments of tyranny.”

Yesterday, Physicians for Human Rights’ new report, Broken Laws, Broken Lives, for the first time documented medical evidence that confirms first-hand accounts of men who endured torture by U.S. personnel in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay. These men were never charged with any crime, yet they had been subjected to treatment that led the Army’s lead investigator into the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse, retired U.S. Major Gen. Antonio Taguba, to conclude, “There is no longer any doubt that the current administration committed war crimes.” Taguba goes on to state, “The only question is whether those who ordered torture will be held to account.” (You can get the report here.)

So, at last, the atrocities are beginning to see the light of day.

But one can argue the atrocities were inevitable -

• We abide a President who has repeatedly lied to both the Congress and to the American People.
• We support a Congress that long ago abdicated its responsibility to serve as a check and balance on the Executive as specified by The Constitution.
• We have been all to willing to surrender our individual liberties in the hope that in doing so we will ensure our own personal security, not caring whether that security would be worth anything without the liberties to which we have grown accustomed
• We support an oligarchy of media conglomerates that have lost all objectivity and routinely parrot the lies fed them by the Administration
• We eschew diplomacy and replace it with threats of bombing Iran, or any other nation that doesn’t do what we want
• We support a candidate for the Presidency who endured years of torture but who refuses to vote against the use of torture in the Senate

On January 20, 2009 George W. Bush will pass a shredded Constitution to his successor; a document that has been used as a doormat which Bush and Cheney have used to wipe the mud and blood from their shoes. It is hard to conceive that the damage done in the past eight years can be repaired and, if so, how long it will take. One President won’t be able to put the luster back on our heritage; nor will two, or three, or even four. But if we can elect a series of men with the right mettle, men who can rekindle the vision of our former greatness, men who will challenge us to be the best we can be, there is a chance, just a chance, the parchment can be repaired and the stains eradicated.

The burning question that will face King George’s successor is whether or not We, The People, care enough to begin restoring The Constitution to its former grandeur.