President Obama had it right. Release the torture memos to admit and to reveal to the world what our leaders and our CIA were doing with enhanced interrogation methods -- while also letting the world and our agents know it would no longer be tolerated.
He was also right on in not pursuing prosecution of the agents who did what they did under orders from their superiors. A more difficult but correct call was that the designers of the torture memos and programs would not be prosecuted.
In wartime, horrific actions are taken and decisions are made under pressure of the war against the hated enemy and from the public which demands action from its leaders. Consider the suspension of habeas corpus by President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War. Consider the monstrously more horrific roundup of tens of thousands of U.S. citizens of Japanese descent during World War II and, without due process, depriving them of liberty and property, and putting them in concentration camps. Citizens of German descent escaped a similar fate.
What would have been accomplished by prosecuting the administrations of Lincoln and Roosevelt for these illegal and repugnant actions, which, at the heat of the moment, seemed perfectly appropriate?
Perhaps more of us would have approved torture at the time of Sept. 11 attacks than would admit it now. Certainly, investigations and prosecutions would be not only extremely divisive and politically charged but also, more importantly, detract from the ambitious agenda of the Obama administration, which is attempting to solve the worst problems facing any president in recent history.
ADVERTISEMENT
Jim Waldo
Duluth
