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As Gore Vidal said once, “we are the United States of Amnesia.” We are. We don’t read. We don’t know other languages. We don’t study our own history. Our history is the history of an idea – an imperfect idea.

Al Jazeera’s Fault Lines hosted a fantastic debate of various experts discussing the Bush legacy of torture.

The panel includes:

Michael Scheuer – Former CIA Analyst
Jumana Musa – Human Rights Lawyer
Larry Wilkerson – former Chief of Staff to Colin Powell
Jim Moran – US Congressman

While the discussion does cover many of the things covered in the media, some of comments made by the panelists are fantastic, including Wilkerson’s explanation in response to an audience question about the implications of not doing anything:

They’re serious in terms of diminishment of our real power in the world, because our real power is as much wrapped around an idea as it is around the military, nuclear weapons or whatever. We’re unique in that  respect in the world and so many Americans seem not realize that, because they don’t know our history.

As Gore Vidal said once, “we are the United States of Amnesia.” We are. We don’t read. We don’t know other languages. We don’t study our own history. Our history is the history of an idea – an imperfect idea. Our constitution made people like you slaves, made them three fifths of a person. Our constitution has changed.

We’ve grown. We’ve moved towards that more perfect union. We ain’t there yet. We never will be there. But that idea is our most powerful weapon in the world and we have done consequential damage to that idea in the world. Our power has been diminished by doing that.

Or Michael Scheuer: Read the rest of this entry »

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