Cheney is Right - about one thing

In the recent debate between President Obama and former Vice President Cheney over closing Guantanamo, Cheney was right about one thing: "There were just a few bad apples." Where he got it wrong was that the "few bad apples" were not only at Abu Graib prison as he described, but were in fact in the White House.

In his speech to the right wing American Enterprise Institute to defend waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation techniques as legal by his mere assertion, Cheney admitted that the Bush administration authorized and condoned these activities! These are the same activities that American courts here at home and Military Tribunals from World War II have found to be crimes in violation of not only American laws, but international treaties. They are in the same category of crimes against humanity for which Nazi war criminals were found guilty. Of course, as the right wing commentators would point out, the Nazis committed far worse atrocities on a grander scale too. Nevertheless, the fact that these techniques were used on only three individuals or that the intent was for the purpose of defending the country are irrelevant and only intended to gain sympathy or divert attention from the underlying crimes. Three, three thousand or three million, it doesn't make a difference: one instance of torture is a crime, and Cheney has openly admitted to it. They certainly are not activities for which America should be proud as Mr. Cheney seems to be as he offers an unsupported argument that he defended the nation and saved lives. Where were he and his colleagues when they were provided intelligence briefings at least a month prior to the 9/11 attacks warning of their possibility, and they did nothing? Me thinks he doth protest too much.

Since the time of the founding of the nation, beginning with President Washington when he was General Washington in the darkest days of the American Revolution, our leaders have renounced torture as our national policy. General Washington opposed torture even when the British used it against our own soldiers. From that point forward, Americans have held true to their basic values to defend our nation without resort to torture. It is only the Bush Administration's "few bad apples" who have changed our national policy. They should be held accountable because these are not just policy changes, if as admitted by the former Vice President, they are crimes. As painful as the process might be, we don't need a truth commission or congressional investigation, we need an independent prosecutor to look at all the facts and circumstance and make a legal, not a political, determination of crimes. Crimes that appear to a have been committed by a few bad apples at the highest levels of our government. If we don't do this, then future administrations will simply view these activities as "policy" issues rather than the "crimes" which they are. If you rob a bank at gun point, it matters not whether your intent was to use the money for a charity. The act of the robbery is the crime itself. If he thinks that his intent will exculpate himself and his few bad apple colleagues, then let him make the case in a court of competent jurisdiction. If he truly wants all the facts to come out, then as in the words of President Bush: "Bring 'em on."

As we approach Memorial Day weekend, let us not forget that American soldiers fought and died in wars to stop dictators and tyrants from perpetrating crimes against humanity. They all took an oath to defend our country from all enemies, foreign and domestic. Let's not tarnish their sacrifices by allowing a few bad apples who were in our own government at the highest levels get away with crimes that were based on tortured logic. That would be putting America First.