America 2.0: Blow A Whistle, Go To Jail

(Poster from AntiWarPosters)

As you Shakers may already know, I'm not one to do any posting on the weekend because, well, it's the weekend. So you can imagine the level of disgust which prompts me to post after reading this AP article about the treatment handed down to whistle blowers, who are just trying to do the right thing:

For daring to report illegal arms sales, Navy veteran Donald Vance says he was imprisoned by the American military in a security compound outside Baghdad and subjected to harsh interrogation methods.

There were times, huddled on the floor in solitary confinement with that head-banging music blaring dawn to dusk and interrogators yelling the same questions over and over, that Vance began to wish he had just kept his mouth shut.

I agree with Wolfrum that "it would be easier to believe the U.S. was always on the side of good." It's a belief that we grew up with and remains to this day, albeit as a myth in later days. The fact of the matter is that all aspects of Iraq reconstruction, fraudulent or otherwise, will move onward and upward, completely regardless of any technical wrong-doings.

As the article points out, even law suits brought forth alleging reconstruction fraud never make it out of the starting gate:

One way to blow the whistle is to file a "qui tam" lawsuit (taken from the Latin phrase "he who sues for the king, as well as for himself") under the federal False Claims Act. [...] But the government has not joined a single quit tam suit alleging Iraq reconstruction abuse, estimated in the tens of millions. At least a dozen have been filed since 2004.

"It taints these cases," said attorney Alan Grayson, who filed the Custer Battles suit and several others like it. "If the government won't sign on, then it can't be a very good case - that's the effect it has on judges."

However they might posture otherwise, the current US government is not interested in doing the right thing. Rather, its interest lies in pursuing the right opportunity, even at the expense of those who try to do right. Oh, what proud days for Americans.

Don't blow those whistles, or you'll be helping teh terrorists. Know your place, shut your face.

Indeed.

[H/T to C&L]