Sadly our national security is only just a political calculation for the GOP.
The House GOP passed a non-binding resolution expressing support for the pro-democracy demonstrators in
Eric Cantor: "
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher: Silence would be a "betrayal of our fundamental principles" and a show of "weakness."
Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart: "The president of the
And Mike Pence's statement introducing the resolution far exceeded the rhetoric in the resolution itself:
"For days hundreds of thousands of dissidents have taken to the streets of
Obama is just another politician who can let Cheney, and his GOP cronies get away with just so much before he is forced to retaliate. Rohrabacher called Obama weak as has Cheney. Obama knows that remarks such as that are made by the GOP to appeal to their base. He can't let those words stand.
Liberals are firmly disappointed in Obama not prosecuting Cheney and his crew for torturing detainees, but maybe his hands are tied.
John Dean was the first Nixon administration official to accuse Nixon of direct involvement with Watergate and the resulting cover-up in press interviews. His article "Expert Advice On Dealing With A Prior Administration's Use of Torture" at
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/22263
describes an academic view of Samuel P. Huntington, the highly regarded Harvard political scientist and former president of the American Political Science Association on prosecuting Bush officials for torture as it states "No official announcement has been made that the Obama Administration is not going to prosecute anyone - other than a few low-level soldiers who photographed themselves and already have been prosecuted - for torturing detainees in our so-called war on terror.
It has become clear that President Obama's announced desire to look forward, not backward, embodies such a decision. Still, we must all hope that the Obama Administration makes more than a non-decision type of decision, and does not merely resolve the matter by silence and inaction. There are, in fact, precedents, and studies, that illuminate the grave problems confronting a democracy in making a choice when faced with the options of prosecuting and punishing versus forgiving and forgetting. I discovered this material some years ago when studying authoritarian governance."
Liberals agree with Dean's opinion which the article states "Personally, I find his arguments for prosecution stronger than those against it when those arguments are applied to the Bush/Cheney Administration.
But since it appears the Obama Administration is not going to take such action, at a minimum the Administration should follow Huntington's counsel to find "a means to achieve a full and dispassionate public accounting," and should make certain that the means chosen is not understood as forgiving, which would allow the nation to quickly forget."
