December 12, 2018
Page 13
O PINION
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Scrutinizing the Record on Bush’s Passing
I think that’s a
good thing
p eter C erto
Our death rituals
for public figures are
evolving.
For a moment,
obituaries favored the
late President George
H. W. Bush with the banal pleas-
antries usually afforded to de-
ceased presidents. Well-wishers
from both sides of the aisle hailed
Bush’s patriotism, service, de-
cency and other traits we think
we want leaders to have.
Then came the counter-narra-
tives: Bush’s inaction during the
AIDS crisis. The generation of
war in Iraq he started. His accel-
eration of the war on drugs and
his race-baiting Willie Horton ad.
His groping of women. Surely we
should have reservations about
celebrating such a legacy, many
countered.
Now, I’m partial to the latter
view — more in that in a mo-
ment. But what concerns me
more is the third phase in this
emerging ritual: the righteous in-
sistence that death is no time to
by
examine a public figure’s life’s
work. They’re dead. Be nice.
Or worse: The centrist
plea, typified by New York
Times columnist Frank
Bruni, that “a mix of ap-
preciations and censorious
assessments is in order.”
Even if you had loved ones
die during the AIDS crisis,
or a family member die in
Iraq, Bruni thinks it’s “possible,
even imperative, to acknowledge
and celebrate” the late leader’s
“valor galore.”
Bruni calls this “nuance.” I
call it the opposite.
This being 2018, I get it. Pol-
itics feels exhaustingly nasty.
Even many lefties crave a con-
servative foil to the crasser oc-
cupants of today’s White House.
Folks in the center may just want
a break from the yelling.
Team, I feel you. But look a
little harder.
Under Bush, the U.S. com-
mitted genuine war crimes. In
the first Gulf War, our bombers
killed 13,000 civilians outright
and 70,000 later by deliberately
targeting civilian infrastructure.
Infants died in hospitals without
electricity, while broken sewage
systems led to preventable epi-
demics.
And like the younger Bush’s
war, reporter Joshua Holland not-
ed, the elder’s was also premised
on lies.
In Bush’s mostly forgotten
Panama war, the U.S. reduced a
civilian neighborhood to what lo-
cals called a “little Hiroshima.”
They did it execute a warrant for
drug trafficking, even after the
CIA itself collaborated with drug
traffickers to fund right-wing
death squads elsewhere in Cen-
tral America.
To cover up the related
Iran-Contra scandal, Bush with-
held evidence and pardoned
six of its architects. Sound like
someone you know?
It’s easy to find other argu-
ments elsewhere. Contrary to the
“be nice” crowd, I think that’s a
good thing.
The terrifying fact is that our
national security state is capable
of terrifying crimes — no matter
who runs the country. It’s unset-
tling. So there’s a strong tempta-
tion to focus on the private virtues
of the individual who sits atop it
rather than the messy machinery
beneath.
And just look what that ob-
scures.
If you don’t hang out with
movement progressives, there’s
a good chance you never heard
anyone say the first Gulf War
might’ve been problematic. If
you didn’t live through it, you
might not have heard of Panama
at all, much less the deeper CIA
intrigues during the Cold War.
Personally, I believe these acts
are crimes that should be atoned
for and never repeated. Same
goes for mass incarceration, the
neglect that led to the AIDS cri-
sis, and other legacies of the era.
Taking a rare opportunity to scru-
tinize them publicly seems more
conscientious to me than observ-
ing even a well-intentioned si-
lence after their architect’s pass-
ing.
We all need a break from argu-
ing sometimes. But new debates,
especially on overlooked sub-
jects, bring new vibrancy to our
civic life. In death, even flawed
politicians can do us that final
service.
Peter Certo is the editorial
manager of the Institute for Policy
Studies and the editor of Other-
Words.org.
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