The Bush Administration, Torture, and the Iraq War Justification

A major controversy surrounds the release of the Interrogation Memos drawn up by White House lawyers in 2002 for the Bush Administration, in  order to justify the need for congressional backing of a war against Saddam Hussein, despite lack of evidence of a connection  to Osama Bin Laden or to Weapons of Mass Destruction. 

There are those who say the torture methods used at Abu Ghraib in Iraq, as well as at Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba, were necessary and justified, but it is clear that Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and others were simply trying to find reasons for the upcoming war and were willing later on to claim a few low level soldiers (so called "bad apples") did this on their own without higher authority.  Several soldiers have been punished but neither the lawyers who drew up these memorandums nor the top government officials who authorized illegal actions have been willing to admit their part in the emerging scandal.  Rather than tell the truth, they have tried successfully until now to "sweep it under the rug" and "cover up" the facts so as to save their own skin.  This is despicable, outrageous behavior, and it makes Nixon’s scandals pale by comparison. 

Now we are told it will hurt national security if we investigate this in detail and that we must look ahead.  I say we cannot look ahead until we expose the total truth and hold those accountable for these illegal activities and crimes in a court of law.  The top officials in the government of the past administration need to be called before the bar of history,  because truth is the most important thing, not the impression it makes on other nations or even our enemy.  We are a special nation, or at least we would like to think so, and we need to emphasize the importance of ethics and morality in our dealings with the world, and also the need to come clean and make sure that NEVER again do we have a rogue government that abuses powers and dumps its crimes on the low level soldiers, the young men and women who sacrifice for their country and deserve our respect, and instead have been utilized as scapegoats.