Accountability For Torture

"America doesn't torture," repeatedly claimed President Bush and others in his Administration. Yet the overwhelming evidence in Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and elsewhere told us otherwise.

Now the Obama Administration has released documents that confirm what much of the world already knew, that torture was rampant in the Bush Administration.

The justification for torture is secret memos issued by the Justice Department in support of the Bush Administration claiming it was legal under Presidential war powers. Winning the "war on terror" can be done through any means the President deems necessary.

Yet we Americans condemned the brutal practices of the Soviet KGB and the Nazi Gestapo. It is acceptable however to the U.S. if it's done by the C.I.A.

What forms of torture were used? We don't yet know all that was done but "waterboarding," which is simulated drowning as one is flooded with water and gasps for air, throwing prisoners into walls, multi-day sleep deprivation, food deprivation, extreme heat and cold and allegedly beatings, electricity to sensitive body parts and other forms of sadism. Was anyone tortured to death? We don't know.

At the Nuremberg Trials following World War ll, the Nazis could have offered similar secret documents in their defense, although their defense was that they were just following orders.

But under the Principles established by those Trials, such memos excuse no-one, nor does following orders. The Americans who committed these crimes knew what they were doing, saw the intense suffering they caused and should be given the trial most of those they tortured were not given.

The Nuremberg Principles have been used in recent times to try such criminals as those from the Balkan war and the Rwanda genocide. But should America now be allowed to excuse itself?

Despite the overpowering evidence, President Obama says none of the American torturers will be put on trial. If so, what happens the next time Americans violate U.S. or international laws, conventions or treaties? Do they too get a pass?

And what happens if another nation or group subjects Americans to "enhanced interrogation techniques" as President Bush called it. Where is America's moral high ground? Is it to ask others to abide by international laws the U.S. would not honor if it captured any of them?

"As a general view," said President Obama about this issue, "I think we should be looking forward and not backwards." I agree with him but when one's dog poops all over the house, the filth and odor will be overwhelming unless one cleans it up.