Wait 'til next year, Pat
Senator Patrick Leahy would be doing everyone a favor if he took his poorly thought-out proposal for a Truth Commission to investigate wrongdoing in the Bush Administration and shoved it back into the dark recesses of his desk.
That questionable conduct and activity occurred during the previous administration when it came the politicization of the Justice Department and wiretapping of U.S. citizens, to say nothing of the manner in which the war in Iraq was sold to the American public, has been reasonably well-documented. What Leahy is hoping to accomplish beyond scoring some partisan political points is another question.
The track record of such commissions is decidedly mixed. The hearings held during the mid-1970s on the CIA’s alleged misconduct during the previous decades may have uncovered wrongdoing that deserved seeing the light of day, but also wreaked enormous institutional harm on the agency that had repercussions all the way to 9/11. And the other parallel, the truth and reconciliation commission held in South Africa as a means of helping that nation come to terms with its Apartheid past, is also one that led to results that, at least in terms of reconciliation, would have probably happened anyway. Meanwhile, south Africa remains a less than shining example of political courage and leadership. Look no further than neighboring Zimbabwe.
Voices on both the political left and right have decried Leahy’s idea — the right sees a partisan witchhunt and the left fears a sell-out. We’re in agreement with President Obama on this one. Rather than going backwards and re-hashing the bitter feuds of recent years, let’s move forward.
The nation and its leaders have a lot of work to do right now, getting our economy back on track and winding down the Iraq War in a responsible way. Then, it’s on, unfortunately, to a prolonged engagement in Afghanistan, one which shows all the earmarks of being a long-term Korea-style involvement. Plus, we’ve got all those other put-off-for-too-long problems, like fixing healthcare, rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure and moving towards a greater degree of energy independence through renewable sources, a transition that will be much more difficult than many seem to think.
The big problem with Leahy’s idea is one of context. If wrongdoing occurred, it should be punished, but that should come through the court system. Should former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales go to jail for agreeing to illegal surveillance of U.S. citizens without first securing the proper warrants? Should Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld — or even President Bush himself — be prosecuted for the abuses that occurred at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo? Perhaps, but then a great deal of testimony on the justification of these extreme measures should also be allowable, which will take us back to the immediate aftermath of 9/11 when no responsible leader or politician wanted to be on the wrong side of an incorrect guess about where the terrorists were going to strike next. It gets complicated very quickly. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz, the chief architects of the misguided war policy on Iraq, probably should undergo some sort of de-briefing on what they thought they were doing, but historians and journalists have begun that already. Meanwhile, they thought they were doing what they needed to do to protect the country. It’s a tough call. It’s also safe to say that it will be a long time before any future administration goes down the same road as Bush, Cheney et. al — unless there’s a really good reason.
The possibilities for excessive politicization of a commission along the lines of what Leahy is proposing are enormous, and to most members of Congress, at least those who sense a winning hand, perhaps irresistible. If the idea goes forward, kiss away for good all that happy talk about bipartisan cooperation to solve the serious problems facing the nation, which we kind of like to think most people are ready for. It’s a big part of how Obama got elected, after all.
Maybe it’s all in the timing. If Leahy could have simply found it within himself to wait a little bit and let some dust settle, it might seem different. Right now, let’s move on. We think maybe Senator Leahy has been drinking too much Kool Aid from Brattleboro.