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Monday, August 4, 2008 12:00 AM

Would Obama prosecute the Bush administration for torture?

Obama's brain trust wants to form a commission on torture and call Bush officials as witnesses, but put off prosecutions -- if any -- till a second term.

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  • Monday, August 4, 2008 11:56 AM

    Partisan witchhunt?

    Why would the prosecution of war criminals and torturers be a partisan witchhunt?

    On one hand, this way of perceiving the situation shows how tone-deaf and morally corrupt our entire national leadership has become, as it finds itself incapable of addressing evil.

    On the other hand, there are plenty of Democrats that could be indicted or implicated, as well. Key Democrats were "read into" the Bush torture program. Additionally, the use of torture by U.S. military and intelligence agencies goes back many decades, and includes both Republican and Democratic administrations.

    For example, a "truth commission" would look at both the use of torture and assassination in the Phoenix Program run under the Johnson administration, as well as the current program of Bush/Cheney/Addington, etc.

    This either transcends normal Beltway politics, or the corrosive effects of the evil of torture will continue to eat away at the foundations of civil society, until the moral authority of this republic is totally emptied, and like the great Soviet Union it once faced collapse spectacularly from the loss of trust and belief in a system completely compromised and bound to evil.

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