AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT!

I know that quoting a Monty Python line doesn’t quite sum up the significance of this most historic event. Certainly the specter of seeing George Bush depart from the Oval office for the last time demands a more fitting tribute. Perhaps something like “Good Riddance” or “Don’t Let The Door Hit You On The Way Out” or “Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You Later – MUCH Later.”

But, try as I did, the best I could come up with was the Monty Python line, and the more I think about it, the more I’m inclined to believe that, however insignificant the phrase may be to sum up this day that most of the nation has been praying for for more than four years, I may just have inadvertently nailed it so to speak. Because in reality the man who takes the oath of office for the President of the United States this afternoon at the Capital building will be about as completely different from his predecessor as positive is from negative.

Every few generations we get a chance to witness the passing of the torch in just such a manner that it seems as though the entire nation is galvanized. Kennedy in 1960 was Camelot, ushering in a new generation of leaders; FDR in 1932 rescued the nation from the grips of a devastating depression. In a sense Barack Obama represents the best of both these men: the new generation that Kennedy embodied and the savior of a wrecked economy that FDR helped mend. For our sake he had better be made of better stuff than the rousing speeches he has given and will continue to give, for never has a new president had so much to juggle on his plate, and all of it urgent and critical. To say he will have his work cut out for him is putting it mildly.

Compiling a list of those things for which President Obama will have to attend to is superfluous. Do we really need a top ten list of worst screw ups of President Bush, especially when we all know the list wouldn’t end at ten? Obviously not. But of all the things that this outgoing President did that harmed the nation, there can be none worse than the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib. We have fought stupid wars before – remember Vietnam? We have fallen asleep at the switch and let the economy tank and called it free enterprise – can you say 1929? I knew you could. But far worse than any costly war or economic meltdown, is the dangerous belief that a society that says it treasures democracy and freedom above all else, could naively stand by and watch the very principles for which it stands be trampled on in the very name of those principles and under the assumption that it is protecting itself from those that threaten it most.

Make no mistake about it, Osama bin Ladin meant to kill Americans on 9/11. And in that endeavor he was quite successful. But he was also trying to do something else. He was trying to kill the American way of life. He was smart enough to know that he couldn’t kill all of us. How can you wipe out a nation of 300 million people? The answer is you can’t. The twin towers were a symbol of American economic and political hegemony that to many in the Arab and Muslim world represented a threat to their way of life. I have written several times in this blog about the differences between a pluralistic society and a fundamentalist society. There are many in the Middle East who simply cannot come to grips with the idea that people are born with certain inalienable rights that are God-given. The attacks of 9/11 were not just meant to kill Americans but to thwart our very way of life. Because at the core of their hatred is the belief that they cannot succeed if our principles and values continue. Obtuse? Perhaps. Fanaticism, be it from the West or East has never been logical. The Nazi movement in Germany was a case study in point.

And that is why, when it mattered most, when confronted with individuals we knew hated us and who meant us harm, our system of laws and values should have been front and center. Torturing enemy combatants, under any circumstances, goes against every thing this nation stands for, and, rather than help our efforts in the war against extremism in the world, actually undermined our standing among moderate nations and helped the very people we were supposed to be better than. The only way Bin Ladin could’ve succeeded on 9/11 was if we had given in to our base fears and scuttled the very thing that we held most precious and dear to us: our system of justice. And that is just what George Bush did when he authorized the use of torture on those detainees, most of whom have now been returned to their native countries.

And that is why out of all the things on President Barack Obama’s agenda, the one thing he must attend to with great haste is the one thing that could begin to bring healing to our national prestige and help rebuild our standing in the global community. He must direct his new attorney general, Eric Holder, to begin prosecuting those who committed torture, even if it means going after Bush and Cheney personally. This isn’t a witch hunt. Both of these men did irrefutable harm to this nation and both must be held accountable. As the top two executives of the country, both men had a responsibility, under oath, to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. Both failed miserably at it, and now both must pay for their actions. This isn’t about bad policy or mere incompetence. This is about disgracing a nation and, far from making it safer, actually ended up making it far more precarious.

Barack Obama has said he wants to look forward rather than backward. Fair enough, but how are we to go forward with such a stain on our collective conscious. And make no mistake about it, the stain of the Bush Administration belongs to all of us. What we permitted a President to do in our name survives him and damages us. Going forward by promising not to do it again doesn’t cut it. Economies bounce back, war-torn countries are inevitably rebuilt, but a nation that turns its back on the very ideals that helped shaped it in the first place for the sake of a good-night’s sleep neither deserves those ideals nor the seeming security it purchased fraudulently.

So please Mr. President, restore our national pride; give us back those principles and values that were stolen by your predecessor in the name of security. Shutting down Gitmo is a start in the right direction. But if you are truly serious about sending out a clear message to the whole world that not only doesn’t the United States torture its prisoners, but it prosecutes those that do, than you must be prepared to do what is necessary, even if it is politically messy. History will judge not only those who committed these crimes, but those who could’ve done something about it. For the sake of the nation and for future generations you must do the right thing. I pray that you find the political will to move forward and do what I fervently believe you know is in the best interest of the Republic.