Then let’s just face it: what you’ve described is an aristocracy.

If they are jailed, their history will become less about what they did and more about their punishment. Emotionally satisfying in the short term, but it just doesn’t get us anywhere long term.

That said, I totally support some kind of fact-finding process in the style of a ‘truth commission’.

The phrase, “It’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission”, would imply that the one undertaking the action is willing to accept the consequences of those actions honestly once the deed is done and that the details would be brought to light in a timely and truthful manner. Trying to use this reasoning with respect to the administration’s application of torture and other controversial measures is disingenuous in that it implies that they intended to divulge the truth in a responsible manner. This is not the case in that the administration made every effort to cover-up or deny any allegations of wrongdoing. There is something pragmatically honorable about falling on your sword after the dirty work is done. There is nothing honorable about a president that almost ritualistically abuses wartime privileges and defaces the nation in the process.

I know everyone wants to play nice and forgive, but what stops it from happening over and over when there are no repercussions for breaking the law and breaching the constitution you agreed to uphold?

Like, I was listening to interviews with someone involved in the Frost/Nixon interviews and hearing them be so outraged by the thought of illegal wiretapping by Nixon and it being an important and grave offense to the American people. I’m not trying to say that the situations are exactly comparable, but I do think there should be this same moral outrage for some things that have been done over the eight years, that makes me worry when it doesn’t happen.

And I think this should happen with every president, regardless of party.

So I don’t want every possible sidestep or bending of the law to be deemed acceptable and ignored.

Greenwald at Salon has done some good opinion pieces on this that I’ve probably posted before.

In my company our management will often say to their high-level subordinates, “It’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission.” I often think this is the best philosophy for matters of national security.