We May Be Through with the Past...

President-in-five-days Barack Obama has recently expressed his perspective on whether or not Bush administration officials should be prosecuted for the atrocities committed over the course of its increasingly-Orwellian 'War on Terror'. Calls for such prosecutions have focused on war crimes charges for "enhanced interrogation techniques" (read: torture), extraordinary rendition, abuse of prisoners (and the law) at Guantanamo and warrantless wiretapping; such prosecutions, were they to be pursued, would target not the grunts on the ground (who eerily say they were "just following orders", but I suppose one can only blame them so much) but the upper-level decisionmakers who authorized the measures - and based on recent statements by unfortunately-still-Vice President Cheney, the cloud goes all the way to the top of the chain of command.

Now, given all the rhetoric we've heard for the past two years about "change", about making a "clean break from the past", one would think that as President, Obama would want to right the wrongs of the past administration, would want to bring to justice those who have so flagrantly violated the law and pissed on the Constitution for the past two terms. One would hope that a President who claims a high moral standing, who claims to want to restore ethics and accountability to our nation's disgraced executive branch, would not let war crimes go unpunished, would not want to continue the shameful and Nixonian precedent that the President is above the law.

Unfortunately, one would be wrong.

Obama has been deliberatley oblique in response to questions about the possible prosecution of Team Dubya members, but he has said, in quite a bit more words, that he will not direct anyone in his own administration to pursue such a track. He says that he does not want to dwell on the mistakes of the past, but to move forward and focus on the challenges that lie ahead. He wants to change without emphasizing how bad things were before.

This would be all well and good if we were talking about, oh, for example, prosecuting a blow job. But we're not talking about some sex scandal or some of the old run-of-the-mill politicking, here. We are talking about war crimes. We are talking about the systematic destruction of the Constitution, the flagrant assertion that the executive branch is above the law, the denial of human rights, the abuse of prisoners, the unwarranted spying on our own nation's citizens. These accusations are not something that can be simply swept under the rug. This isn't something the American people just need to "get over". This is criminal activity, and it needs to be brought to justice.

If Obama truly wants to make a fresh start for the White House, if he truly believes in his own mantra of 'change', then it is imperative he lead by example. He needs to prove that the moral integrity is being restored to this country's leadership, and he needs to prove that crimes will not go unpunished simply because they were committed by people in power. If he wants his own as well as future administrations to behave justly, lawfully and in the best interests of the people, if he believes in the Constitution he will soon swear to uphold, he needs to show us just what that's worth. The precedent that will be set by allowing the Bush administration to laugh all the way to the bank with our nation's honor, integrity and power in tow is more dangerous than any Republican boat-rocking Obama could possibly be fearing at the moment.

"The book says we may be through with the past, but the past ain't through with us."

The only way to truly and honestly move forward is to properly deal with the wreckage of the past eight years. And if Obama can't see that... well, then we may have declared him a visionary just a little too soon.