Looking forward, not backwards
A mantra for elitist neoconservative and imperialist crimes against humanity
Joe Biden not only refuses to hold Israel accountable but pays for and arms its crimes against humanity in Gaza and Lebanon, effectively reducing Israel to a proxy for U.S. neoconservative policy.[1] Kamala Harris promises to do the same. The U.S. Supreme Court largely grants Donald Trump’s demand for immunity for “official acts.”[2] Barack Obama refused to hold the George W. Bush administration accountable for war crimes in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.[3] And now, Keir Starmer rejects accountability for slavery in the British Empire, using breathtakingly similar language to Obama’s, “insist[ing] he wanted to be ‘looking forward, not back.’”[4]
As the Intercept noted of the impunity Obama insisted upon for the Bush administration, so-called “common criminals” enjoy no such impunity. They are treated much more harshly than those who commit the most heinous crimes.[5] This is something that has gotten worse: Richard Nixon, at least, had to resign in the Watergate scandal (his unelected successor, Jerry Ford, pardoned him and, of course, he never faced any accountability for the war crimes in southeast Asia—the Vietnam War that spilled over into Laos and Cambodia).
Yet somehow, in a few days, we are to vote for the “lesser evil” among heinous criminals in an institutionalized false dichotomy (the two-party system) and feel good about ourselves for “saving” so-called “democracy” (more accurately labeled a constitutional oligarchy). We might as well say boys will be boys (even if not all of them are male).
[1] David Benfell, “Get ready to fight, kids,” Not Housebroken, September 9, 2024, https://nothousebroken.substack.com/p/get-ready-to-fight-kids
[2] John Kruzel and Andrew Chung, “US Supreme Court rules Trump has broad immunity from prosecution,” Reuters, July 1, 2024, https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-supreme-court-due-rule-trumps-immunity-bid-blockbuster-case-2024-07-01/
[3] Murtaza Hussain, “Report to U.N. Calls Bullshit on Obama’s ‘Look Forward, Not Backwards’ Approach to Torture,” Intercept, October 30, 2014, https://theintercept.com/2014/10/30/un-report-slams-obama-protecting-u-s-officials-torture-charges/
[4] Dan Bloom, “Commonwealth summit agreement raises slavery reparations after row with UK,” Politico, October 26, 2024, https://www.politico.eu/article/united-kingdom-slavery-reparations-colonies-commonwealth-summit-samoa/
[5] Murtaza Hussain, “Report to U.N. Calls Bullshit on Obama’s ‘Look Forward, Not Backwards’ Approach to Torture,” Intercept, October 30, 2014, https://theintercept.com/2014/10/30/un-report-slams-obama-protecting-u-s-officials-torture-charges/