Harsh truths (Rutledge Herald)

Published: April 28, 2009

Official Washington was in a dither last week about how best to respond to continuing revelations about the Bush administration's policy of using torture against terror suspects ...

At present, several investigations of the Bush administration have been completed or are under way; a report by the Senate Armed Services Committee released last week found that torture was not the work only of a few miscreants at Abu Ghraib but was the result of policies approved at the highest levels. The Senate Intelligence Committee is also conducting an investigation. It is Leahy's view that a special commission could piece together all these investigations, putting on the record the full story of how U.S. policy went astray ...

We have already learned a great deal. We have learned that the infliction of torture did not work, despite Cheney's insistence to the contrary. We have learned that high-level military officers warned it would not work and was against the law. We have learned that torture was put into practice without the advice of people in government who were specialists in interrogation methods ...

A full repudiation of torture must encompass a repudiation of the ideas used to justify it. We must also know the truth of what went on in our names. Whether this work is carried out by diverse committees or by a national commission, it is important, difficult and painful work, confronting harsh truths and the rigorous demands made on us by our own ideals. It is not a distraction from Obama's agenda. It is the fulfillment of democracy, which is at the heart of his agenda.

http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20090428/OPINION01/904280308/1038/OPINION01