Friday, December 12, 2008

Why bother with Bush?

A couple days ago I wrote wondering what Obama should do about Bush and his perhaps criminal administration. Investigations? Truth Commission? Immunity to underlings to testify against the big players?

My sister replied:

Why should he do anything??? Just start fresh and keep going. Bush will be history in 5 weeks, can't the whole mess be ignored after he and his kind are gone???

I can think of a few reasons.
* The Bush administration has been the most secretive since Nixon. There is intense curiosity of what went on behind the public façade.
* A simple and complete historical accounting of what Bush did and its consequences. And with Bush consequences were world-wide, both through his War on Terror and economic deregulation.
* While a historical accounting, in itself, is a good thing we might learn things to prevent future presidents from doing the same. We may also want to attempt to undo the consequences and will need to understand what happened.
* An accurate assessment of what Bush did wrong may help mend relations with other countries who were hurt or offended by Bush's actions.
* Some people were hurt through his actions -- dead soldiers and their families, Gitmo detainees improperly detained -- and may want to claim restitution.
* We Americans tend to think criminals should be punished and many crimes do not have a statute of limitations, meaning no matter how long ago the crime occurred the perpetrator should face justice. Did Bush commit crimes?

Not all of these reasons would prompt investigations that would result in criminal charges against Bush. And pursuing those criminal charges are a separate question of uncovering what Bush did as president.

1 comment:

  1. My friend responded:

    More secretive than Nixon, by far, from day one. And more malicious to the political process. Nixon was largely interested in himself and his historic reputation; politically he was a moderate. Bush has tried to force-feed the extreme right wing agenda to the nation while avoiding any debate or accountability thereto. Much worse than Nixon.

    The main reason I want a comprehensive public judicial examination of the Bush White House, the Justice Dept and many other agencies is to present the truth and set an agenda of holding future presidents to higher standards. For example (one of MANY), Bush imposed never-before-attempted secrecy on the first day of his regime - and no one protested. That should never happen again. The best way to avoid it is to make it unthinkable and disreputable.

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