Biden Administration Liars Need to be Punished

Elite immunity should not protect those who concealed war crimes.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller will be speaking at the State Department on October 1, 2024 in Washington, D.C. about Iran’s missile attacks on Israel. Iran launched hundreds of ballistic missiles in Israel last week in retaliation for attacks on Hezbollah leaders.(Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Matthew Miller, a spokesman for the State Department under Joe Biden, has established his toughest critics. On June 24, 2024, when Miller walked into his car, a pro-Palestinian protester cried out, “Matthew Miller, you’re a liar!” Miller, along with other spokesmen, was the public face of the Biden administration’s Israeli defense from accusations of committing a war crime in Gaza, so he along with other spokespersons were a bolt of public condemnation. Again and again during the last 16 months of the Biden administration, Miller was asked about credible reports that Israel was committing war crimes. His Standard response The Biden administration took the charges of war crimes seriously and evaluated the evidence of “.difficult“The circumstances, and sufficient evidence should emerge, he was ready to assert that a war crime had been committed, but he was not yet ready to make that assertion. April 2024, Mirror I said“We are very clear that Israel wants to do everything possible to minimize civilian casualties. We have made it clear that they must always operate in full compliance with international humanitarian law.”

What made Miller particularly brave was the horrifying smirk he wore when he strongly suggested that reporters and human rights groups were in a hurry to judge. One opportunity for November 2024, Mirror I actually laughed When a reporter asked about Gaza’s star hunger.

However, he no longer works at the White House, so Miller sings another song. In an interview with Sky News Miller was released last Friday I said“I think it’s definitely true that Israel committed a war crime,” Miller added that Israeli soldiers are not “being responsible” for their actions.

While speaking to the reporter, I was asked to square the inconsistency between what I said on the podium and what he just said.

Miller’s defenses are absurd and morally offensive. The administration is inevitably disagreement, but there is a threshold for activities that call for public protest as well as private disagreement. The accomplices of war crimes certainly meet that threshold. 1974, Gerald Telhorst Resignation Because as Gerald Ford’s spokesman, he was unable to conscientiously observe Richard Nixon’s pardon. By any moral standard, Nixon’s pardon was as dangerous as democratic norms, but less than the participation and whitewashing of Israeli war crimes, leading to the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians (and possibly hundreds of thousands).

Resignation is the only ethical option if the government you represent participates in war crimes. In May 2024, Stacey Gilbert, a career State Department official who will be in charge of 20 years of service, resigned due to a government report that he felt Israel had falsely claimed that it had not blocked humanitarian aid. Gilbert contributed to this report and felt that the facts were not accurately reflected. Also, only Gilbert would stand up. At least 13 government officials I resigned from Gaza– And in November 2023, more than 1,000 officials signed a letter calling for a ceasefire. Public protests have always been an option, although damaging to your career. It was the path Miller decided not to walk.

Current Issues

I’ll talk Democracy now!Gilbert I said“That’s not the view of the State Department, the USAID, the subject experts within the humanitarian community. It was known. It was absolutely known to the administration for a very long time.”

One way to define the difference between Gilbert and Miller is that Gilbert understood that she worked for the Americans. But it wasn’t Biden who paid Miller’s salary. It was the masses. If Miller truly believed that Israel had committed a war crime and that the Biden administration had intentionally covered it, he had an obligation to resign and tell the truth.

Miller basically argues that if you’re just following orders, participating in war crimes is acceptable – Unstable echo Self-defense was created by the perpetrators of Nazi atrocities.

Miller continues to justify the Biden administration’s decision to give Israeli Carte Blanche. According to Miller, if the Biden White House acted to end Israeli war crimes, it would have given Hamas victory:

It was revealed that during that period there had been movements from European countries to acknowledge the state of Palestine, public debates on withholding weapons from Israel, protests on US university campuses, and European countries to acknowledge the state of Palestine. A little longer, they managed to get what they always wanted.

It’s hard to know what to do with this rationalization. Why did the Biden administration do if the Palestinian state’s protests and recognition were “appropriate”? I will paint protesters and I oppose the national declaration? More importantly, it makes no sense to say that stopping Israel’s war crimes would be a political victory for Hamas. Because war crimes themselves are the Biden administration’s goal (and although the official US government policy of returning to the creation of a liberal international order in 1945 rarely acted). Miller’s lies about Gaza were part of the endemic culture of deception and rejection of personal responsibility at the Biden White House. They are associated with the tragic cover-up of Biden’s frailty. Miller says that if he was a civilian he would have once again opposed Biden’s run, but as someone who works in the hallway of power, he had to stay quiet.

According to Miller, “It’s a collective behavior issue that no one wants to start speaking up and stand up on his own. You can stand up yourself, cut your head off, stand up together, and take action.” In this account, people in power are more bound to tell the truth than the public. If so, why should we take Miller seriously? In an interview, he also said he does not believe that Israel’s war is genocide, contrary to the assessments of many human rights groups. But if he lied for political reasons, there is no reason to trust him now.

The American political system has been operating for a long time under a code like the mafia Omarta And excuse. Consider all the politicians who have not suffered a real social status loss due to catastrophic lies about Robert McNamara, Henry Kissinger, Dick Cheney and Paul Volfowitz. Miller knows he will remain a member of the good position of the political elite, so he can escape by acknowledging that he is not open.

However, this system of elite immunity should not remain so, that it has led to so many harm. Ideally, Miller should be brought to trial before a war crimes court. That’s unlikely to happen. International law is traditionally used only against weaker countries and is not the governing class of superpowers. But what if an ordinary citizen says that Miller and people like him deserve to be exiled? If they were to progressively run towards the president in 2028, what if they said they would blacklist their management mirrors and similar numbers (such as former national security adviser Jake Sullivan and former Secretary of State Anthony Blinken). Matt Deuss of the International Policy Centre; comment In an interview with Miller, “They knew everything. They all. They misunderstood the public and the Congress. If they knew everything, they should all be exiled.

jeet heer

Jeet Heer is a correspondent on national issues. Nation And weekly host Nation Podcasts, Monster time. He also paints out the monthly column “morbidity symptoms.” Author of Fall in love with art: Françoise Mouley’s cartoon adventures and Art Spiegelman (2013) and Sweet Lechery: reviews, essays, profiles (2014), Heer writes for many publications. New Yorker, Paris Reviews, Virginia Quarterly Review, America’s outlook, Guardian, The new republicand Boston Gloves.