President Reagan once called America a “shining city on the hill” to describe our democracy and the beacon of hope it provides to the world.
But under President Bush, that view of a nation whose moral authority rests on the rule of law was cast into a deep pit of darkness with the White House-approved use of torture on terrorism suspects.
Late last week, the Justice Department provided the fullest accounting to date of that when it released memos detailing brutal interrogation techniques that were based on the perverted legal opinions of Bush administration attorneys.
Within days of taking office, President Obama renounced torture and said the interrogation methods would never be used again. It was an important move to restore America’s moral standing around the globe.
He advanced further up the high ground in releasing the memos and condemning what he called “a dark and painful chapter in our history.”
The memos show the need for a complete investigation into the circumstances that gave rise to torture and the people in the most senior reaches of the Bush administration who approved the criminal practices.
The best way to accomplish that is creation of an independent, bipartisan panel modeled on the 9/11 Commission that would release its findings for Americans, and the world, to see.
The whole truth, and nothing but the truth, must be known to ensure this never happens again.
The rule of law demands it.
Here's a great example of the way I want Americans to think about torture...
Churchill would not torture prisoners even when “London was being bombed to smithereens.”
“And the reason was that Churchill understood, you start taking shortcuts and over time, that corrodes what’s best in a people,” he said. “It corrodes the character of a country.”
Bonnie, the difference between your childhood game and waterboarding is that no one was holding your head under the water. You got to come up whenever you decided you had had enough.
Bonnie, like a number of her conservative ilk, has been reduced to parroting talking points that only the most brainwashed could believe.
She's the Republican version of Ron Murray, Sr, who could not see a problem with a Union under any circumstances.
They both should be banned from this comment section as being too warped to play with the rest of us.
we kids, while growing up played holding our heads under water and sometimes in swimming we stayed under as long as whe could. We had no idea this would one day be called torture by some.
Did any of the tortured die ? I don't think so !
This is only another deterrent by the Dem.'s to take eyes off the real problems we're facing.
If I'm not mistaken we watched terrorists BE-HEAD one of our own on national tv and he DIED !
Give it a break !!!!
The true terrorists are NOT interested in sitting down with O'bama and having a nice cup of tea over some pleasant conversation. They are deceivers and have ONE GOAL and that is to destroy Israel and America and we don't need to FORGET that.
Oh, and by the way there is NO SUCH THING as a BIPARTISAN investigation in Washington. What a joke !