There have been many diaries demanding prosecution for those involved in torture...I would like to make a quick case for not prosecuting.
We now all agree that what was done was a national tragedy in our nation's history...but we have to remember it was done in the context of another national tragedy our country had not seen since Pearl Harbor...the attack on 9/11/2001...killing over 3,000 innocent Americans.
The people involved in carrying out what we all know now as torture were doing so in good faith in the context of a national tragedy that led our country astray towards a protect our country at all costs...even our constitution.
This is not so much different than our national tragedy of Japanese Internment which is a scar on our nation that would not be righted until nearly 50 years later under WJC and even then too little to late...
http://library.thinkquest.org/...
This blight on our history was caused by the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese which caused a similar overreaction by the United States and an illegal detention of Japanese American citizens. But we did not prosecute those involved in the detentions and paid minimal reparations to the victims of the policy.
So the argument that well if we do not prosecute, then it will happen again...well lets take a look at Japanese internment...we failed to prosecute there....
Did we put the Koreans, Vietnamese, Iranians, Iraquis, Muslims or anyone else in internment camps during conflicts with those people and/or countries...we did not...America learned from our mistake without prosecuting those who faithfully executed an executive order from the POTUS and approved by the AG...
The context of the current overreaction of rationalizing torture as not being torture by the former AG and POTUS in the name of protecting our country from future harm cannot be discounted. Many at DKos has said a crime is a crime and must be prosecuted...that is not always true. Prosecutors have always been able to use descrection in prosecuting taking into account the facts and circumstances of the crime being committed...indeed sometimes even not prosecuting murderers and torturers.
Take the case of a woman who murdered her would-be rapist...well that is still murder but should she be prosecuted...clearly not
http://www.observer-online.com/...
But murder is still wrong and so is torture but we were attacked and we were as a country overreacting to that attack by taking away civil rights and legalizing what we all know now is torture...and we all know it is wrong.
But in the heat of the moment the people doing these activities ligitimately thought they were saving American lives by these activities approved by the POTUS and the AG. So what to do. As with Japanese internment we learn from our mistakes and don't do it again.