Should Obama Investigate Bush?

Many Democrats across the country didn’t take long reverting to their frantic, fretting selves, after their initial euphoria following last week’s election of Barack Obama. Every unattributed tidbit being floated by or about the Obama transition team is being pored over for signs that the big-C Change Obama ran on will turn out to be of the small-c variety. A couple of the most debated issues are: whether the new president will quickly dismantle the post-9/11 security measures put in place by the Bush Administration, including torture and domestic spying; and if the Obama Administration will seek to investigate, and possibly prosecute, alleged abuses by the Bush White House.

First of all, the fretting needs to be put on hold. It’s still more than two months before Obama even becomes president. Give the man a little time to line up his key priorities and policies. I’d frankly be more worried if he said he’d already figured out how to fix everything. Nobody’s THAT good. But having said that, people who voted for the President-elect have a right to expect the torture/abuse-of-power issues to be dealt with early on.

The first part, about torture, or “enhanced interrogation techniques” if you prefer, should be easier; Obama must put a stop to it. He must renounce torture by the United States at his earliest opportunity, like, say, the inaugural address. Also, renounce “black site” prisons, extraordinary renditions, holding prisoners without charging them or allowing them access to legal representation. In an instant, he would restore the image of the United States not only in the eyes of the world, but in the eyes of many, many Americans, who believe that an essential part about what makes us so special is, we don’t do things like that. Or at least we didn’t used to.

The second part, to what degree it’s necessary, if at all, to seek truth and reconciliation for alleged abuses by the Bush White House… that’s a thornier matter. Opinion from Democrats seems span a broad spectrum on the question, from letting the past stay in the past, to calls for war crimes trials. It’s further complicated by the possibility President Bush will issue blanket pardons before he leaves office. According to this article in Salon, the Obama team is considering forming a nonpartisan commission to investigate any abuses, including torture, with the possibility of criminal prosecutions to come later. Interestingly, also on Salon, is this post by liberal blogger Glenn Greenwald, who says there’s a growing consensus in Washington that Obama is best off letting, shall we say, bygones be bygones.

Whichever way this particular wind is blowing, there is one thing I think that Obama must do on this matter, and that’s get as much information out there as possible. Whether that’s through a commission or congressional hearings, Americans need to have the books opened up about the last five years, so they can judge for themselves what lines were crossed. It’s necessary for truth and it’s necessary for reconciliation. Pretending nothing happened won’t wash, and neither will vindictive, angry investigations that make no effort to consider the context of the times in which these things occurred. Get the truth out there, and then decide the best course of action.