Duplicitous Politics: The Heart of Darkness

  

Duplicitous Politics: Heart of Darkness

Peter Schultz

 

                  Duplicity is intrinsic to government and politics and one of the best illustrations of this was the Obama administration and its targeted assassinations program. The following is from Jeremy Scahill’s book, Dirty Wars.

 

                  “President Obama’s credentials as a popular, liberal Democrat and constitutional lawyer who pledged to end the excesses of the Bush war machine [was] of tremendous value in selling [his presidency].”

 

                  And now for the facts: “A year into his presidency, Obama and his … team were fully committed to the process of assassinations against terror suspects and other ‘militants.’ Unlike … Bush, who delegated decisions of assassinations, … Obama personally signed off on most strikes…. Tuesday afternoons [were] dubbed ‘Terror Tuesdays’ [when] targets would be ‘nominated’ for spots on the kill list…. This secret ‘nominations’ process was the invention of the Obama administration…. In essence the kill list became a form of ‘pre-crime’ justice in which individuals were considered fair game if they met certain life patterns of suspected terrorists…. Their potential to commit future acts could be a justification for killing them…. In Yemen, Obama authorized the JSOC to hit targets even if the mission planners did not know the identities of those they were bombing. Such strikes were labeled Terrorist Attack Disruption Strikes, or TADs.” [351-352, emphasis added]

 

                  Duplicity is absolutely essential in politics in order to disguise the violence, the injustice, the inhumanity that is intrinsic to politics and government. And it is worthwhile to underline just how pervasive this duplicity is, including as it does here Obama’s claim to be a liberal Democrat who as such was committed to distinguishing himself from his predecessors, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, et. al. So, even our most basic political categories like “liberal” and “Democrat” are duplicitous, serving to hide the collusion between what are conventionally known as our “two political parties.” That there are two political parties is a fantasy constructed to hide the true character of our politics.

 

                  Joesph Conrad wrote an excellent novel, The Heart of Darkness. But, in the final analysis, he did not get to the actual heart of civilization’s darkness, which is only visible when it becomes clear that the “Kurtz’s” of the world are no longer outliers, rogue actors but are, in fact, in charge of the asylum. We have, it seems, reached that point.