Between Reconciliation and Prosecution

Despite cries from Amnesty International and the political left, it seems unlikely that President-elect Obama will take steps to investigate Bush officials for abuses of law and human rights over the past eight years — and rightfully so.

That said, America must find some order of reconciliation. Barack Obama has suggested that he will make haste to close the Guantanamo Bay prison and bring U.S. detention policies back in line with the Geneva Conventions and the values enshrined by our own Constitution. The Times of London reported that both moves may even come on Obama's first day in office as executive orders. It's a critical step to restoring a moral mantle, but one that fails to rectify any crimes from the War on Terror.

So why not establish tribunals and haul Don Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney forth? The obvious answer is that Obama will be too busy cleaning financial and foreign policy messes for such a tumultuous ordeal, but beyond that, even if Obama wasn't inheriting the most mired Oval Office since Roosevelt succeeded Hoover, it would remain a poor course of action to pursue. Reconciliation is devastating business, and humiliating leaders and generals for crimes committed while trying to defend a nation is intricate business. Latin America still finds itself dealing with ghosts of past abuses, almost 40 years after Cold War dictators left power.

But there are other ways for America to come to terms with — and for Americans to bare witness to — the measures that the president's men have taken under the banner of protecting our country. In the United Kingdom right now, two former Gitmo detainees, both now repatriated without charges, and Chris Arendt, a former guard at the detention center, are on a tour of universities, speaking about the crimes they witnessed and endured during the War on Terror.

"Living inside of a cell for five years away from your family and friends without ever being given any answers as to why you're there; asking 19-year-old boys that don't have any idea about the policy of our government and the politics that make things happen why they're there; and for answers we weren't able to give — I consider that torture," Arendt has told audiences.

That this setting of the public record is being done in the U.K., rather than in the U.S. — that there are British rather than American students hearing firsthand accounts of abuses by young soldiers, unsure upon whom or for what reason they were inflicting misery — is truly disappointing. Giving voice to these stories is an important first move toward recognizing and embracing the dark chapter we can now hope to step out from beneath.

Law schools and media outlets should play a critical role in the grassroots American reconciliation I'd like to see. Those soldiers, intelligence officers and low-level officials that took part in these abuses should be invited to come forward, with documents or merely memories of what has transpired, and give depositions, without fear of legal action or reprisal. Those who were subject to misdeeds should also be asked to come forward and give record to the abuses they suffered. And, in turn, once the extent and severity of the crimes of Bagram, Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib are known, once we understand the scope of extraditions and warrantless invasions, the findings should be cataloged and presented to the Congress — perhaps even read into the Congressional Record.

And then America, in turn, must apologize. To those who were abused, to those families that were forever scared, and to those — both within our own borders and abroad — whose trust was forever ravaged. Many nations spend decades rehashing dark periods, healing and re-tearing open old wounds. We have the unique opportunity to close this chapter of American history, rather than have painful facts emerge slowly, year after year. Let's not let the chance slip away.

Brian Till, one of the nation's youngest syndicated columnists, is a research associate for the New America Foundation, a think tank in Washington. He can be contacted at till@newamerica.net. To find out more about the author and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

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