Honor the moral CIA agents

The Obama Administration’s release of the memos detailing torture policy of the Bush Administration led to criticism from the left and abroad for not prosecuting the CIA operatives who followed the order and from the right for releasing the memos in the first place. I wrote about political ideology and Cuba yesterday, and it looks like that is coming back to play today.

We can’t prosecute those who followed the orders of Cheney and Bush, et al. That would be a legal nightmare and not get us anywhere as a country. Why should we prosecute those following orders? The problem occurred with the orders themselves – and those who gave the orders.

While I agree with Obama to not prosecute the CIA agents, I disagree with his reluctance to investigate the illegalities (including the torture directive) of the Bush Administration. As I recall, we spent millions investigating a failed real estate deal of the Clintons – only to find out that Clinton got blowjobs in the oval office from an intern, and then he lied about it. So now we can’t investigate one of the most heinous abuses of power in order to “move forward”? My question is: Can we move forward without investigating?

By not investigating thoroughly the past 8 years, we deprive the chance at coming to an awareness of the completeness and the complexity of corruption of the Bush-Cheney presidency. It has led to the downfall of our financial system, one unnecessary war, countless lives lost and lives destroyed, and the loss of many of our civil rights. I think we should know the details of how we got here.

And this leads to again to the hypocrisy of the right I wrote about yesterday. Don’t release the torture memos? Don’t waste taxpayer money on investigating Bush-Cheney? Hide your head in the sand while Bush abuses the office of the White House? But going after Clinton’s failed real estate deals before he ever took office is OK? Please, explain that to me.

On the question of prosecuting agents, I have an alternative suggestion: Why don’t we honor those CIA agents who didn’t torture in their interrogation of prisoners? Yes, let’s publicly praise the probably countless agents who saw the immoral nature of the directive from Bush-Cheney and refused to use those techniques. These men and women are the true heroes.