Mr. Leahy, We're Not Stupid

We do study history, Senator.

We know that historically, commissions have been used to sweep prosecutions under the rug. You speak warmly of the Church commissions, but did your commissions then, stop the Bush administration from committing the crimes they have? Did your commission even slow them down?

I want to believe you are an honorable man seeking to find a way to do his duty to himself, his constituents, his Constitution, and his country. I really, really want to believe this, I do.

But to suggest anything other than investigation and warranted prosecution, to suggest any course other than what is required by our own laws, by international laws, and by the treaties We the People have signed on to, is, as nicely as I can put it, irresponsible, and short-sighted.

While I can understand your need to serve political expediency, and while I can appreciate your fears of the circus Washington will become if anyone dares to attempt to hold the Bush administration culpable for their misdeeds, I cannot understand how you could allow these considerations to trump the law that would be applied to me, or to anyone else in this country, were we guilty of the crimes we suspect Mr. Bush, Mr. Cheney, Mr. Rumsfeld, and their willing underlings, appear to be guilty of committing.

War crimes are not a subject for politics. War crimes investigation and prosecution are not a thing to cower from, either.

You have the power, sir, to create your "Truth" commission (and if I ever heard a more Orwellian name, I can't think of it). You can see these self-admitted criminals, and their self-admitted crimes, bogged down in your commission, watered down, and eventually neglected until no possibility of prosecution for these crimes remain. And if the crimes were limited in scope to, say, illegal wire tapping, or lying to Congress, or other such crimes, then a commission might be acceptable. Letting future elected officials off with the stern warning a commission ultimately becomes, in these cases, might be fine (though again, it did not seem to work with your Church commission and the Bush administration).

This CANNOT happen with war crimes.

Our national honor, our ability to be a world leader, and our hope for the advancement of Democracy, all mean NOTHING - if we fail to clean our own house and prosecute war criminals.

So forget your commission - get a special prosecutor on this.

Please, please, do not blind us, or bind us, in this way.