Of two minds

A couple of days ago, I was having lunch with a friend who works for the Maine Council of Churches. Between discussions about the nigh-unto-religious power of Oprah and the Worst Television Show of All Time we talked about the Bush administration, and how the progressive community should press for investigation of the various abuses that took place while Bush was in office. It is truly depressing to think that we, as a nation, need to be reminded that torturing people is fundamentally immoral, but apparently some people haven't gotten that memo, so remind we must.

Anyhow, the question of how to investigate the Bush administration's abuses yields a great many sub-questions. One particularly pressing question is whether to investigate with an eye toward prosecution, or with the ultimate goal of truth-seeking as an end unto itself. I think that I favor the former. I objected strongly, for example, to granting retroactive immunity to the telecommunications industry during the FISA debate, and joined with much of the Left in being disappointed by Obama's capitulation on that point. Similarly, I find the following report by the Inspector General's office (via TPM) to be thoroughly galling:

The evidence in our investigation showed that Schlozman, first as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General and subsequently as Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General and Acting Assistant Attorney General, considered political and ideological affiliations in hiring career attorneys and in other personnel actions affecting career attorneys in the Civil Rights Division. In doing so, he violated federal law - the Civil Service Reform Act - and Department policy that prohibit discrimination in federal employment based on political and ideological affiliations, and committed misconduct. The evidence also showed that Division managers failed to exercise sufficient oversight to ensure that Schlozman did not engage in inappropriate hiring and personnel practices. Moreover, Schlozman made false statements about whether he considered political and ideological affiliations when he gave sworn testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee and in his written responses to supplemental questions from the Committee.

Schlozman is no longer employed by the Department and, therefore, is not subject to disciplinary action by the Department. We recommend, however, that, if criminal prosecution is declined these findings be considered if Schlozman seeks federal employment in the future. We believe that his violations of the merit system principles set forth in the Civil Service Reform Act, federal regulations, and Department policy, and his subsequent false statements to Congress render him unsuitable for federal service. [emphasis mine]

As TPM reports, no prosecution was undertaken. Schlozman's big punishment appears to be that he (probably) won't be able to work for Uncle Sam again. Cry me a river.

When it comes to some of the more egregious human rights violations, Andrew makes some good points. [Warning -- as is often the case, Sully includes a graphic picture to help prove his point, so don't click it if you're squeamish.]

Remember: even the Pentagon concedes that a dozen prisoners have been tortured to death by US interrogators. Human rights groups put that number at close to a hundred. Most of the techniques we saw displayed at Abu Ghraib were authorized by the president and vice-president. And they monitored the waterboarding sessions very closely and then sat around while the CIA openly destroyed the taped evidence of them - evidence that would prevent anyone from ever believing this wasn't torture.

It is beyond naive to believe that the history of the United States is devoid of terrible, unforgivable injustice. We repeatedly and obviously fail to live up to the ideals upon which the nation was founded. But if we seek a more just future, and hold out any hope that those ideals are in any way attainable, we cannot decline to prosecute those responsible for dismantling the various checks and safeguards that support what remains of our moral authority. As much as I would love to believe that the long national nightmare of Bush's presidency is soon to be over (to paraphrase some other guy in a similar situation), it is insufficient to simply turn the page. Much as antibiotics will not penetrate an abscess until the infection is drained, we cannot expect justice to reassert itself without seeing how deeply we have failed and at what level the decisions were made, and without holding those responsible to full account.