Bush's Crimes: Are We For Accountability Or Not?

(From Jason Leopold, OpEd News)

As President Barack Obama reverses some of ex-President George W. Bush's most controversial "war on terror" policies, a consensus seems to be building among Democratic congressional leaders that further investigations are needed into Bush's use of torture and other potential crimes.

We're crossing our fingers.


We can't fault Barack Obama for trying to concentrate on the future, but we also have to agree that, as Nancy Pelosi stated to Chris Wallace of Fox News, "the past is prologue." We are doomed to repeat this sordid piece of American history if we do not learn from it. Republicans would rather have us all become revisionists.

President Obama has been elected, in part, to do damage control. However, the country needs to know just how much damage has been done. Gitmo brutalities aside, people need to know all of the Who What When Where and Hows of the Bush administration - the most secretive in U.S. history. Cheney and Rove have stated that history will be much kinder to the Bush cabal than we think. How long do we have to wait for that judgment? While Cheney, Rove, Bush et al sit back, comforted by their own words, the country will be asking "Who put us here?"

We really need to know.

Obama's aides have indicated that there soon may be a "public airing" of secret Justice Department legal opinions and other documents that provided the underpinning for the Bush administration's brutal interrogation policies.

So, Mr. President, as much as you may not want to enforce it, you have a mandate from the people: investigate NOW.