Looking Forward (Askance)

Trey Smith

The United States has defended a Yemeni draft law that would grant outgoing President Ali Abdullah Saleh immunity from prosecution over the killing of protesters during an uprising against his rule, despite criticism from the United Nations.

Yemen's cabinet proposed the law on Sunday to speed Saleh's exit from office in line with a Gulf-brokered plan to end protests that paralysed the impoverished Arabian Peninsula state for most of 2011.

"The immunity provisions were negotiated as part of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) deal to get Saleh to leave power. They have to be codified in law," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters at her daily briefing on Monday.

"This is part and parcel of giving these guys confidence that their era is over and it's time for Yemen to be able to move forward towards a democratic future," she added.
~ from United States Defends Immunity Law for Yemeni President Saleh ~

As Glenn Greenwald documents in his powerful new book, With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful, when it comes to the crimes of the elite -- no matter how devastating those crimes may be -- the people are consistently told that it is important to look forward, not backward. Why fixate on past deaths, injuries and economic ruin when the sheen of democracy is just around the corner?

As Greenwald points out again and again, this has become a clever mechanism to allow the elites to abuse laws and justice with impunity! Why worry about all the death and harm you may cause if you know you won't have to pay for your misdeeds?

But when it comes to the rest of us, the government itself becomes fixated SOLELY on the past. Consider the case of one Bradley Manning. He is, of course, the soldier accused of leaking a trove of government documents to WikiLeaks.

The government is NOT suggesting that he be granted full immunity and that we merely fix the problem so that leaks will not be made in the future. No, the full weight of the government has bore down on him for nearly two years and the government is aiming to hit him with the heaviest punishment possible.

So, to review. If a member of the elites is caught red-handed committing some heinous crime or a gross miscarriage of justice, we are to look forward and not worry about silly things like justice or punishment. If a member of the 99 percent is caught doing something some believe is heroic or committing a crime, we are to look backward and we must make sure that they pay big time.

Hey, fair is fair, right?