George W. Bush appears to be banking on President-Elect Obama and the Democrats repairing his legacy somewhat by allowing torture to not be prosecuted. And make no mistake about it, by
convening a “commission” to look into the matter is doing just that. This I believe is a big mistake. Oh, I don’t really care about Bush’s “legacy” as we will all be suffering with paying off the damage he has done for quite some time, so I don’t think we will be forgetting the damage he did anytime soon, no I am more concerned with the fact that as torturer-in-chief, Bush and his torturing partners helped put us down on the level of people that do not respect human rights, and our perception around the world both now and in the future depend on us holding those accountable for crimes against humanity.

While Bush sees no reason to pardon those involved in torture, but even Senator McCain (we can stop calling him the Republican Presidential nominee now can’t we?) has said that waterboarding is torture, (though he voted against banning the controversial technique). It was illegal in 1947 when President Roosevelt dismissed a General for waterboarding in the Phillipines, just as it was in 1968 during Vietnam. Whether VP Cheny endorses it or not, it is torture and world sees it as such. Allowing these crimes to go unanswered is simply not the right thing to do.

Filed under: Bush, Failures