Dear President Obama, (RE: Torture)

Mr. President, since you have stated that you believe in the rule of law, and you want to put the last eight years behind us, I believe that there is only one way to quickly accomplish your goals legally. You should pardon Bush, Cheney, Gonzales, Bybee, and all the rest for any illegality regarding torture. This will end permanently any legal issues concerning these people and allow you to move on. Best of all, it's legal. No need to ignore possible crimes.

This will provide many benefits to the Nation. The Congress can then investigate the matter quickly and fully with no legal haggling. The pardoned can testify without fear of prosecution and therefore no reason to plead the Fifth or to fight subpoenas. They can simply show up and tell what they know.

It may also remove the partisanship from the process. That may be a bit much to hope for, but it's still possible.

But by pardoning the participants we should be able to get to the bottom of this embarrassing situation, figure out how such a situation arose, and perhaps allow Congress to pass legislation to make sure that America never again tortures.

If you allow the current situation to persist, then we might very well find ourselves in the position of having tortured AND having ignored our own laws, all the while learning little to nothing of value from this experience.

Think about it, please.

Respectfully,
Birthmark

...that everyone is okay with this idea. ;)