Should Obama Prosecute Bush Era Officials for Torture?

Politics has recently asked a question with few good answers. It's no secret that during the Bush years, the United States began to change its definition of torture, freedom, and the right to privacy. Many of us in the states were willing to give up some of our rights in the belief that it would keep us safe. As time went on, and these infractions on the basic values long held by Americans throughout our entire history became worse. Eventually, people started to take issue with these core changes.

With the end of the Bush era and the beginning of the Obama administration, changes were made swiftly. Recently, official memos regarding the Bush era changes have came to light. People have generally been shocked by the depth of these abuses of power. The question raised is whether the people responsible for these apparent violations in abuse of power should face the consequences of their actions.

While I have no doubt that a focus on the past abuses of the Bush Administration would be horrible experience for the country. Personally, I believe that to ignore these criminals would be a greater injustice. These people have hurt America. Exposing them is to face the problem in hopes that the mistakes won't repeat themselves.

After President Nixon resigned, President Ford faced an issue of whether to pardon Nixon for his crimes. He chose to spare the country the very real pain and injury a trial of the former president would cause. Over 30 years later, the crimes of the Nixon administration were repeated. Maybe action now, while painful, would prevent another repeat of these crimes in 30 more years.