Even if Obama is Protecting Bush, Nothing Says We Have to Tolerate Torture

Once again, our news is besmirched by the crimes committed by the CIA during inhumane interrogations. Despite the Republican barrage, despite the Realopportunism of President Obama who has little taste for a major exposé, this time American justice cannot wiggle out of appointing a special prosecutor to clean out the Bush stables.

So much the better. Because our blissful amazement over Obama was about to make us forget that a president who wants to “go forward” and doesn’t use the rear-view mirror looks very much like a president with amnesia. Now “his” Justice Department suddenly reminds him of the duties of “morality.” And this moral reminder also applies to Europe since, according to the principal of subsidiarity, if the United States was trying to save itself the trouble of investigating torture allegations, it would devolve to the European courts (Spanish and/or German) to try the torturers.

Let’s hammer home the word “moral.” Forgiving America for its past is out of the question, if America does not resolve to examine its own conscience. Europe should pay no attention whatsoever to the partisan calculations that the White House is forced to make today. America has an obligation to hold historic disciplinary and criminal investigations, but will it follow through? If not, is Europe ready to play that role? Is Europe equally ready to hand down indictments for the extortion that could be committed under the Obama administration tomorrow it because has not dared to totally reform American values? Because at a time when Hollywood keeps serving us its Inglorious Basterds and the cult of gratuitous violence towards prisoners of war, it is morally essential for us to remind our children and our American friends that we oppose any torture or mistreatment of detainees.

In the immediate future, it is essential that we denounce the idea—endorsed by Obama—of interrogations that don’t begin with a reading of the detainee’s rights. America won’t listen to us? Of course it will. Because if the Americans continue to mistreat and torture behind the scenes in Afghanistan, Europe will not morally be able to stay in Kabul. Let’s get tough. The White House will listen to us.