U.S. Back to the Future

Published in Il Manifesto
(Italy) on 6 December 2011
by Luca Celada (link to originallink to original)
Translated from by Mattia L. Nappi. Edited by Brigid Burt.
Madonna will sing at the half-time concert of the Super Bowl. Shortly after, Billy Crystal will host Oscars. As someone pointed out, America is experiencing a space-time anomaly that seems to have brought it back twenty years ago. Especially since Newt Gingrich – the paleocon Speaker of the House in the 90s – is the current improbable leader in the pools of the Republican presidential race. Now, all we need is for the Euro to crumble to complete the global flashback-effect. By the way, if the National Defense Authorization Act, just passed by the Senate, became law, this would be a further serious recoil. The anti-terrorism package makes permanent the “emergency” measures enacted by Bush for the “war on terror” in the post-9/11: Pretrial detention, secret jails, military tribunals – i.e. the world according to Guantanamo, where the Arab Spring has never existed and the leading edge of U.S. foreign policy is the pursuit of conflict against Iran (the package also includes new more severe economic sanctions). A regime of “domestic security” that (unless a virtuous veto of Obama) would bring back the clock hands of civil rights directly to the times of the total surveillance and the suppression of dissent. If this would not bring back until McCarthyism era, therefore until the era of J. Edgar Hoover’s COINTELPRO.


USA: Ritorno al futuro

Madonna cantera’ al half-time concert del Superbowl; poco dopo Billy Crystal presentera’ gli Oscar. Come ha osservato qualcuno, l’America vive una anomalia spaziotemporale che sembra averla portata indietro di vent’anni. Soprattutto visto che Newt Gingrich – il paleocon presidente della camera negli anni 90’ – e’ l’attuale improbabaile leader nei sondaggi della corsa presidenziale repubblicana. Ora manca solo che si sgretoli l’euro per completare l’effetto flashback a livello globale. E visto che ci siamo se il National defense authorization act appena passato dal senato dovesse diventare legge, sarebbe un ulteriore gravissimo balzo indietro. Il pacchhetto antiterrorista rende permanenti le misure “d’emergenza” varate da Bush nella war on terror post-11 settembre: detenzione preventiva, carceri segrete, tribunali militari – il mondo cioe’ secondo Guantanamo, dove la primavera araba non e’ mai esistita e la punta di diamante della politica estera USA e’ la ricerca dello scontro con l’Iran (il paccehtto comprende anche nuove piu’ severe sanzioni economiche). Un regime di “sicurezza interna” che (a meno di un veto virtuoso di Obama) riporterebbe le lancette dei diritti civili direttamente ai tempi della sorveglianza totale e la soppressione dl dissenso di epoca se non maccartista allora a quella del Cointelpro di J Edgar Hoover.
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