On his second full day in office, President Obama signed an executive order to close Guantanamo Bay and end torture once and for all. It was a promise he'd made time and time again during his campaign, and he made sure that the whole world knew that the United States would not torture under his administration. Though the president is certainly making good on his promise to close Gitmo and restore the U.S.'s image as a peaceful nation, there is still something missing. The president doesn't seem to have any plans to prosecute those who perpetrated torture. Over the past two weeks we have witnessed admissions from both Fmr. President Bush and Fmr. VP Cheney that they both knew about, authorized, and supported the use of torture as a means of interrogating prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. What has been Obama's reaction to these startling confessions? He says we should focus on the future rather than the past. I don't know, that just sounds a little, well...like something Bush would say. If torture is a war crime, why not investigate these crimes and bring all those who perpetrated them to justice? If a crime has been committed - and we KNOW a crime has been committed - then no one, not even a former president, should be allowed to get away with it.
This country is expecting a lot from you, Mr. President. Please don't let us down.
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I agree with you, but let's wait and see what happens. He may just leave it to the Justice Department and Congress to begin the investigation. OTOH, I can see his point in wanting to leave it all behind and forget about it, so that he can concentrate on the economy, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, etc. I'm sure he doesn't want to be bogged down with crimes of the Bush administration. I do hope,though, that he doesn't just leave it all alone, as if nothing happened.
He needs to come out and say unequivocally that anyone, on any level, who engaged in torture needs to be brought to justice, whether or not he will be involved with that personally. There is talk that the U.N. may start investigating without waiting for the approval of the U.S. Obama could just hold a five minute press conference and say he would support the U.N.'s decision.
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