letter from Sparty

(Feel free to send your thoughts.)

I, too, am frustrated and disappointed by the president's decision to continue with the Bush military tribunals, although he has added some ingredients of procedural due process.

I am not disappointed by his failure to support a single-payer health system because I never expected him to propose such a system since he had opposed it during his campaign.

An appointed commission to investigate the use of torture during the Bush regime is better than nothing - I suppose. While nobody would argue that the methods used were the equal of those used by the Nazis and Japanese during WW II, that shouldn't be the threshold for punishing those who engage in establishing and carrying out a system of extreme interrogation methods. If it is, then it's not likely that anybody could ever be held responsible for such methods as water boarding. I want those who used these practices punished, whether they were following orders or not. BUT, I also want their superiors punished, and that includes the lawyers such as John Yoo who created the legal justification for the use of torture.

If we fail to hold people responsible for acts in violation of U.S. treaties and international law this time we are establishing the rationale for future use of similar methods.