Democrat should not criminalize political differences with Bush

Mort Kondracke:

For the sake of national security and national unity, President-elect Barack Obama should put a stop to efforts to investigate or prosecute Bush administration officials for anti-terror "war crimes."

The motive behind such efforts is not - as claimed - "truth" or "justice," but political vengeance.

Republicans hated President Clinton and a GOP-dominated House impeached him. Many Democrats hate George W. Bush with equal or even greater passion, but they demurred on the idea of impeachment - mainly because the action against Mr. Clinton hurt the GOP more than it hurt Mr. Clinton.

But now Bush-haters are calling for the Obama administration to investigate Bush officials for alleged war crimes and other misdeeds connected with the war on terror.

Mr. Obama should make it clear right now that he opposes such action - and also that he opposes the "compromise" idea of a "truth commission" to investigate alleged Bush-era wrongdoing.

The main reason has less to do with "turning the page," uniting the country and letting bygones be bygones - all good Obama impulses - than with preserving the morale of intelligence professionals in wartime.

Were a special prosecutor to be appointed to investigate possible criminality involved in detainee interrogations, "extraordinary renditions" or terrorist surveillance, it's not only Bush-era top officials who would have to hire lawyers to defend themselves but lower-down intelligence operatives as well.

The same would be true if Congress created a "truth commission" with subpoena power to report on Bush-era policies. The operatives wouldn't have to fear prosecution, but they would still have to worry about their reputations.

And, when President Obama calls on the CIA to undertake a dangerous mission - perhaps a terrorist "snatch" in the tribal areas of Pakistan or the assassination of Osama bin Laden - any agent directed to undertake it would justifiably demand a legal opinion first.

...

There is more.

This type of prosecution would undermine national security and roil the politics of the US. I think the Democrats would find out just how unpopular their terrorist rights agenda is. If they tried this stunt the Democrats would face significant rejection in 2010.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Washington Post: Some Democrats eye adding more justices to the Supreme Court to change its ideological bent The once-remote idea has gained the attention of liberals angered by the GOP push to remake the federal courts. Probably the easy way to defeat this court-packing scheme is for Trump to propose doing the same thing now.  It would lead to Democrat denunciations and claims that it would be wrong, thereby blowing up any attempt by them in the unfortunate event of Democrats winning a presidential election.
Read more

29 % of companies say they are unlikely to keep insurance after Obamacare

Conn Carroll: A new survey of 368 midsize to large companies found that 29% of them are considering terminating their active employee health care plans when Obamacare is full implemented in 2014. Only 71% of employers surveyed said they did not expect to drop their health coverage, while 20% said they did not know and 9% said they were planning to exit. The latest survey, conducted by Towers Watson, echoes an ealier survey by McKinsey & Co. finding that 30% of private-sector employers were planning to drop their employee health insurance coverage by 2014. When the Congressional Budget Office crunched Obamacare's spending numbers, they estimated that only 7% of employees currently covered by employer-sponsored plans would lose their plans. ... This means the cost of the health care fiasco will be hundreds of billions more than estimated by the CBO and Congressional Democrat. It is also clear that Obama's pledge that you could keep your health care plan if you wanted t
Read more