Obama can talk all he wants about not looking back but this grotesque past is bigger than he is.

[BigBearJohn]

so says Frank Rich in the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/26/opinion/26rich.html?_r=1

Last week Bush-Cheney defenders, true to form, dismissed the Senate Armed Services Committee report as “partisan.” But as the committee chairman, Carl Levin, told me, the report received unanimous support from its members — John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman included.

Levin also emphasized the report’s accounts of military lawyers who dissented from White House doctrine — only to be disregarded. The Bush administration was “driven,” Levin said. By what? “They’d say it was to get more information. But they were desperate to find a link between Al Qaeda and Iraq.”

Five years after the Abu Ghraib revelations, we must acknowledge that our government methodically authorized torture and lied about it. But we also must contemplate the possibility that it did so not just out of a sincere, if criminally misguided, desire to “protect” us but also to promote an unnecessary and catastrophic war. Instead of saving us from “another 9/11,” torture was a tool in the campaign to falsify and exploit 9/11 so that fearful Americans would be bamboozled into a mission that had nothing to do with Al Qaeda. The lying about Iraq remains the original sin from which flows much of the Bush White House’s illegality.

Levin suggests — and I agree — that as additional fact-finding plays out, it’s time for the Justice Department to enlist a panel of two or three apolitical outsiders, perhaps retired federal judges, “to review the mass of material” we already have. The fundamental truth is there, as it long has been. The panel can recommend a legal path that will insure accountability for this wholesale betrayal of American values.

President Obama can talk all he wants about not looking back, but this grotesque past is bigger than even he is. It won’t vanish into a memory hole any more than Andersonville, World War II internment camps or My Lai. The White House, Congress and politicians of both parties should get out of the way. We don’t need another commission. We don’t need any Capitol Hill witch hunts. What we must have are fair trials that at long last uphold and reclaim our nation’s commitment to the rule of law.

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[EFerrari]

2. Civility

Civility: Treat other members with respect. Do not post personal attacks against other members of this discussion forum.

[BigBearJohn]

6. Thankyou

[Political Heretic]

11. Thanks for doing that.

[Egnever]

16. You are right, Sorry BIgbear

The choice of the quote to pick out of an article full of good quotes pissed me off. It's late I am cranky and I reacted poorly. Add to that the fact that I cant find the article anywhere other than this post now and its clearly time for me to lay off the caffine.

[EFerrari]

18. Thanks, Egnever.

[BigBearJohn]

19. No problem.

:toast:

[pleah]

24. Here ya go.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x443463

[Fumesucker]

5. I hadn't seen the article before..

But then I don't spend every waking minute on DU..

[SeattleGirl]

17. Me either

I know that people who spend a lot of time here can get annoyed at repetitive postings of the same thing, but if, like me, you can't always be on DU frequently, then it's actually appreciated. Sometimes, repetition is a good thing.

[BigBearJohn]

20. Hi there!

Where ya been? Nice weather we're having, eh?

[SeattleGirl]

22. Hey BBJ!

I love this weather!

Me, I've mostly been working, then chilling out in the evenings.

Hope all is well with you.

[Skittles]

7. we know who is slow

and it sure ain't Big John

[BigBearJohn]

9. ain't she sweet...

Yes I ask you very confidentially, ain't she sweet?
:hug: :loveya:

[ZombieHorde]

8. Why make it personal? Short bus? Are you using mentally disabled children as an insult?

Not cool.

[BigBearJohn]

12. Thank you

:toast:

[Jeep789]

3. Fortunately, part of Obama's forward looking strategy includes

getting the truth out. For that we should be thankful. I think his strategy is working so far. It is not his job to investigate prior admins. It is his job to let the truth out so that those who should investigate can.

[EFerrari]

4. This bit is interesting and maybe predictive:

"Last week Bush-Cheney defenders, true to form, dismissed the Senate Armed Services Committee report as “partisan.” But as the committee chairman, Carl Levin, told me, the report received unanimous support from its members — John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Joe Lieberman included."

[Political Heretic]

10. Fortunately it isn't up to Obama.

It's up to the Justice Department.

[BigBearJohn]

13. I think if they prosecute these bastards, it will go a long way to restoring faith in our government

Hell, if the repukelicans can interrupt congress for months on end,
trying to impeach Clinton, we can a throw a few bushites into the spotlight.

[izzie]

14. I think it is hard to get rid of how we think of our self.

This type stuff did not fit in to that so it will just not go away. Shame does fit into it. The thought that we can always make the country better also fits into it. How you make this right with people who think any thing they do is right is hard to figure. That seems to be the battle. IF YOU THINK YOUR 'RULERS' CAN DO NO WRONG YOUR IN A FIX. I have always thought the these 'rulers' were just people and could make errors and did. The people should know all about it. Our laws state we will protect the weak and it is just how we have to face things.

[BigBearJohn]

15. very well said.

[ejpoeta]

21. maybe that is what he wants. make the people DEMAND it.

release memos. drip drip drip. then people will start coming forward. drip drip drip. and when the dam bursts, there is nothing he can do to stop it.

[EFerrari]

23. That's what I think he's doing. So, when people like Rich

push up against the floodgates, it's not really a bad thing.