[Peace-discuss] Why does [Obama] so desperately want detention without trial?

[C. G. Estabrook]

http://www.fff.org/comment/com1209p.asp ("Why Does [Obama] So Desperately Want Indefinite Detention for Terror Suspects?"
by Andy Worthington, September 21, 2012)

This excellent summary nevertheless ignores the most obvious reason the Obama administration wants detention without trial: to deal with demonstrations in the US against its economic and military policies.

Obama has always been worried about the demonstrations that drove two presidents from office forty years ago. In his *The Audacity of Hope*, he writes, 

"…perhaps the biggest casualty [sic!] of that war [Vietnam] was the bond of trust between the American people and their government … Increasingly, many on the left voiced opposition not only to the Vietnam War but also to the broader aims of American foreign policy [as] manifestations of American arrogance, jingoism, racism, capitalism, and imperialism … Admittedly, these were caricatures, promoted by activists and political consultants … But the caricatures were what shaped public impressions during election time … It was against this backdrop - an era of division rather than an era of consensus - that most Americans alive today formed whatever views they may have on foreign policy. These were the years of Nixon and Kissinger, whose foreign policies were tactically brilliant [sic]…" 

Obama makes it clear that the anti-Vietnam war demonstrations against Johnson and Nixon should not be allowed to develop again [= restoring "the bond of trust"]. What's not clear is how draconian the steps he would take would be - particularly against "activists and political consultants." 

He successfully co-opted the anti-war movement to get elected in 2008 (and win the Peace Prize!), but he was lying, as his brutal and efficient expansion of Bush's wars shows. And the owner of the "Kill List" isn't going to hesitate to move against movements like those that brought down his "tactically brilliant" predecessors. 

It will probably be even easier than killing kids with drones.

--CGE